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H.R.H. THE PRINCE OF WALES 




H.R.H. The Prince of Wales 

From the Pawling by Archibald Stuart Worthy, published by Henry Gra-ves and Co 



H.R.H. 

THE PRINCE OF WALES 



a. 



An Account of his Career, including his Birth, 

Education, Travels, Marriage and Home 

Life ; and Philanthropic, Social 

and Political Work 



/. 



Xe^xjcr-^-vxiLLJ::. (vTT\j-U^ T . /^ 



\^''' 




D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 

1898 



XA^^' 



s_ 



.'in rig/its of translation and reproduction are strictly resa'-ved. 



//^ 



PREFACE 

The aim of this Book is to give an accurate record of the life of the 
Prince of Wales. No previous attempt has been made to present even 
a partially complete biography of His Royal Highness^ although 
isolated portions of the Princess manifold activities have been treated 
of by various writers. Thus the author of the present work acknow- 
ledges considerable indebtedness to Sir W. H. Russell's fascinating 
volumes on the Prince and Princess of Wales's tour in the East and 
the Prince of Wales' s tour in India {^from which the Illustrations on 
pp. 99 and 105 are reproduced') ; to Sir H. C. Burdetfs " Prince, 
Princess, and People," which deals mainly with the philanthropic side 
of the Prince's life and character ; and to Mr. A. H. Beavan's 
" Marlborough House and its Occupants." A large number of 
memoirs have also been consulted, including those of the Prince 
Consort, Baron Stockmar, Mr. Charles Greville, Dr. Norman 
Macleod, Canon Kingsley, Dean Stanley, and Archbishop Magee. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I 

PAGE 

Birth and Early Education . . . . . . i 



CHAPTER II 

The Prince's Visit to Canada and the United States . . 21 

CHAPTER III 

Life at Cambridge and the Curragh — Death of the Prince Consort — 

The Prince of Wales's Tour in the East . . .32 

CHAPTER IV 

The Prince of Wales's Marriage . . , . .42 

CHAPTER V 

Early Married Life . . . . . . .59 

CHAPTER VI 

Illness of the Princess — Royal Visit to Ireland — Continental and 

Eastern Tour . . . . . . .71 

CHAPTER VII 

The Prince's Illness . . . . . . .81 



X THE PRINCE OF WALES 

CHAPTER VIII 

PAGE 
1873-I875 ........ 90 

CHAPTER IX 

The Prince of Wales's Tour in India . . . . -95 

CHAPTER X 

OuiET Years of Public Work, 1876-87 — Visit to Ireland — The Queen's 

Jubilee , . . . . . . .111 

CHAPTER XI 

Silver Wedding of the Prince and Princess of Wales — Engagement 

AND Marriage of Princess Louise of Wales . . . 122 

CHAPTER XII 

The Baccarat Case — Birth of Lady Alexandra Duff — The Prince 

of Wales's Fiftieth Birthday — Illness of Prince George of Wales 130 

CHAPTER XIII 

The Duke of Clarence and Avondale . . . . .134. 

CHAPTER XIV 
1893-1897 ........ 142 

CHAPTER XV 

Sandringham . . . . . . . .154 

CHAPTER XVI 
Life in London . . . . . . . .164 



CONTENTS xi 



CHAPTER XVII 

PAGE 

Personal Characteristics . . . . . .173 



CHAPTER XVIII 

Personal Characteristics — continuea 



CHAPTER XIX 

The Prince as a Sportsman — The Turf — Persimmon's Derby — The 
Derby - Day Dinner — Hunting — Shooting — Deer - Stalking — 
Yachting . . . . . . • .189 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



H.R.H. The Prince of Wales .... 

The Prince of Wales and the Princess Royal in 1842 

The Oueen, the Princess Royal, and the Prince of Wales . 

The Prince of Wales ..... 

The Prince of Wales at the Age of Three . 

The Christening of the Prince of Wales 

The Rev. Henry Mildred Birch, the Prince's First Tutor . 

The Oueen, the Prince Consort, and their Children 

The Prince of Wales at the Age of Eight, and the Duke of Saxe 

Gotha at the Age of Five .... 
The Landing of the Oueen at Aberdeen in 1849 . 
The Prince in 1847 ..... 

Sketching at Loch Laggan — The ^ueen with the Prince of Wales 

Princess Royal ..... 
Queen Victoria and the young Prince 

The Prince in 1859 ..... 

Christ Church, Oxford ..... 
The Tour in Canada and the United States, i860 
The Duke of Newcastle ..... 
The Prince's Landing at Montreal 
The Prince of Wales laying the Last Stone of the Victoria Bridge 

St. Lawrence ..... 

The Grand Ball given at the Academy of Music, New York 
Trinity College, Cambridge .... 

The Prince in 1 861 
Dean Stanley ...... 



PAGE 

Frontispiece 
xvi 
3 
5 
6 

7 



Coburg- 



and the 



over the 



10 
II 
13 

H 
15 

17 

19 
21 

22 

24 

25 
29 

32 

34 
38 



XIV 



THE PRINCE OF WALES 



The Prince of Wales's Reception by Said Pacha, Viceroy of Egypt, at 

Cairo . . 

The Princess Alexandra of Denmark 
The Prince on Coming of Age 
The Princess in 1863 

The Princess .... 

The Marriage of the Prince and Princess . 

A Contemporary Design for the Marriage of the Prince and Princess 
On the Wedding Day .... 

The Princess in 1863 .... 

The Princess in 1864 .... 

The Princess with the Baby Prince Albert Victor . 
The Prince, the Princess, and Prince Albert Victor 
The Oueen with Prince Albert Victor 
The Prince at the Age of Twenty-Three . 
The Oueen, the Princess of Wales, and Princess Helena 
Thanksgiving Day, 1872 : The Scene at Temple Bar 
Thanksgiving Day, 1872 : The Procession up Ludgate Hill 
The Oueen, with the Princes Albert Victor and George, and the Princess 

Victoria ot Wales . 
The Prince's Indian Tour, 1875 . 
Embarkation on Board the Serapis at Brindisi 
The Prince's Visit to the Cawnpore Memorial 
The Prince in 1876 
The Prince in 1879 
The Prince in 1882 

The Princess of Wales in her Robes as Doctor of Music 
The Duchess of Fife and the Princesses Victoria and Maud 
The Duke of Fife . . . . 

The Duke of Clarence 
The Princess of Wales 
The Prince and Princess of Wales, with the Duchess of Fife and Lady 

Alexandra Duff 
The Oueen and the Duke and Duchess of York 
The Prince in Admiral's Undress Uniform 
The Prince as Grand Master of the Knights-Hospitallers of Malta, at the 

Duchess of Devonshire's Ball 
The Duke of York in his Robes as a Knight of St. Patrick 
The Duchess of York .... 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



XV 



The Norwich Gate at Sandringham 

The East Front, Sandringham 

Sandringham from the Grounds 

The Princess's Dairy at Sandringham 

The Kennels, Sandringham 

The Princess with her Favourite Dogs 

Marlborough House from the South-west 

Marlborough House : the Drawing-Room 

Garden Party at Marlborough House, July i 

Marlborough House : the Salon 

The Prince of Wales as Colonel of the i8th Hussars 

The Duke of Connaught and the Prince of Wales 

Sir Francis Knollys . . . 

The Prince as Admiral .... 

Mr. John Porter and Mr. Richard Marsh, the Prince's P 

Trainers, and John Watts, his Jockey 
The Egerton House Training Stables, Newmarket 
The Prince's Derby, 1896. 
The Prince as a Sportsman in 1876 
The Britannia .... 
The Prince in Yachting Costume . 



ast and 



Present 



PAGE 

156 
158 
160 
161 
162 
164 
166 
169 
171 

179 
184 

187 

189 
191 
192 
196 
198 
199 




The Prince of Wales and the Princess Royal in 1842 
From the Painting by Sir W. C. Ross, A.R.A. 



CHAPTER I 



BIRTH AND EARLY EDUCATION 



The Prince of Wales was born on 9th November 1841, at Buck- 
ingham Palace. The Duke of Wellington, who was in the Palace at 
the time, is said to have asked the nurse, Mrs. Lily, " Is it a boy.? " 
" It's a Prince, your Grace," answered the justly offended woman. 

The news was received with great enthusiasm throughout the 
country, and the Queen and Prince Albert had thousands of letters 
and telegrams of congratulation not only through official sources at 
home and abroad but from many of Her Majesty's humblest subjects 
all over the world. Punch celebrated the event in some verses 
beginning — 

Huzza ! we've a little Prince at last, 

A roaring Royal boy ; 
And all day long the booming bells 

Have rung their peals of joy. 

And the little park guns have blazed away, 

And made a tremendous noise, 
Whilst the air has been filled since eleven o'clock 

With the shouts of little boys. 

Even at the moment of his birth the eldest son of the Sovereign 
became ipso facto Duke of Cornwall, and before the Prince was four 
weeks old he was created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester by 
Royal Patent, as the former of these titles never passes by merely 
hereditary right, but is subject to fresh creation for each holder of 
the title. 

As a matter of fact the title of Duke of Cornwall has always 
been held by the eldest son of the Sovereign for many centuries, and 

B 



2 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

at the moment of his birth the Prince became entitled to the revenues 
of the Delectable Duchy, of which the rentals and royalties come 
to over _^ 60,000 a year. His Royal Highness is also Duke of 
Rothesay and Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. He is Prince of 
Saxony, Earl of Chester, Earl of Carrick, Earl of Dublin, and Baron 
Renfrew, and he also enjoys the picturesque title of Lord of the Isles. 

A little less than a month after the birth of her eldest son the 
Queen wrote to her uncle, Leopold I., King of the Belgians : " I 
wonder very much who my little boy will be like. You will under- 
stand how fervent are my prayers, and I am sure everybody's must 
be, to see him resemble his father in every respect, both in body 
and mind." 

The christening of the Prince of Wales took place on 25th 
January 1842, in St. George's Chapel, Windsor, for although Royal 
baptisms had hitherto been celebrated within the Palace, both the 
Queen and Prince Albert felt it to be more in harmony with the 
religious sentiments of the country that the future King should be 
christened within a consecrated building. 

As can be easily understood, the choice of sponsors for the 
Prince of Wales was a matter of considerable delicacy. Finally the 
King of Prussia was asked to undertake the office. He accepted 
the invitation, and arrived in England a few days before the ceremony 
in which he was to play so important a part. The Prince's other 
sponsors were his step-grandmother, the Duchess of Saxe-Coburg, 
represented by the Duchess of Kent ; the Duke of Cambridge ; the 
young Duchess of Saxe-Coburg (Queen Victoria's sister-in-law), 
represented by the Duchess of Cambridge ; Princess Sophia, re- 
presented by the Princess Augusta of Cambridge ; and Prince 
Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg. 

Nothing was omitted to make the Prince of Wales's christen- 
ing a magnificent and impressive ceremony. There was a full 
choral service, concluding, by the special desire of Prince Albert, 
with the Hallelujah Chorus. "It is impossible," wrote the Queen 
in her Journal^ " to describe how beautiful and imposing the effect 
of the whole scene was in the fine old chapel, with the banners, the 
music, and the light shining on the altar." It was significant of the 
young Queen's native simplicity that the Prince was only christened 



BIRTH AND EARLY EDUCATION 3 

Albert, after his father, and Edward, after his grandfather, the Duke 
of Kent. 

Both the Queen and Prince Albert soon showed that they were 




The Oueen, the Princess Royal, and the Prince of Wales 

From the Painting by S. Cousins, A.R.A. 

determined to allow nothing like publicity to come near their 
nurseries, and the public obtained but few glimpses of the Prince of 
Wales as a child. Prince Albert's intimate friend and adviser. Baron 
Stockmar, wrote a year after his birth to one of his friends : " The 



4 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

Prince, although a httle plagued with his teeth, is strong upon his 
legs, with a calm, clear, bright expression of face." Before he was 
eighteen months old His Royal Highness had already sat for his 
portrait several times. 

As may be easily imagined, a good deal of interest was taken in 
the Royal child by those who had an opportunity of seeing him. 
When the great geologist, Sir Charles Lyell, went to Balmoral, the 
Queen's eldest son, "a pleasing, lively boy," gave him an account 
of the conjuring of Anderson, the " Wizard of the North," who 
had just then shown the Court some marvellous tricks. Said the 
Prince in an awestruck tone, " He cut to pieces Mamma's pocket- 
handkerchief, then darned it and ironed it so that it was as entire as 
ever ; he then fired a pistol, and caused five or six watches to go 
through Gibbs's head ; but Papa knows how all these things are 
done, and had the watches really gone through Gibbs's head he could 
hardly have looked so well, though he was confounded." Gibbs, it 
should be mentioned, was a footman. 

The Prince may be said to have owed his first training to Lady 
Lyttelton, Mrs. Gladstone's sister, for she filled the post of gover- 
ness to the Royal children till our future King was six years old. 

The Prince of Wales was only seven years old when his parents 
began anxiously considering what should be the mode of his educa- 
tion, and to whom it should be entrusted. The public showed a 
great deal of interest in the matter, and a pamphlet was published 
when the Heir-Apparent was only in his fifth year, entitled Who 
should educate the Prince of Wales ? This contribution to the 
subject was carefully read by both the Queen and Prince Albert, 
and they applied to a number of their most trusted friends and to 
the leading statesmen and churchmen of the day for advice on the 
important question. 

Baron Stockmar contributed his views on the education of 
Princes in a very lengthy memorandum. One thing the shrewd 
old German physician wrote was well worthy of notice, and that 
was, that the education of the Royal children ought to be from its 
very earliest beginning a truly moral and a truly English one. The 
Bishop of Oxford, Dr. Wilberforce, and Sir James Clark came to 
practically the same general conclusions as did Baron Stockmar, 



BIRTH AND EARLY EDUCATION 5 

namely, that the best way to build up a noble and princely character 
was to bring it into intelligent sympathy with the best movements 
of the age. 

After some further discussion Prince Albert opened negotiations 




The Prince of Wales 

From an old Print published in 1843 

with Mr. Henry Birch, the gentleman who was ultimately entrusted 
with the responsible position of tutor to the future ruler of the 
British Empire. This young man had been educated at Eton, where 
he had been captain of the school. He had taken high honours at 
Cambridge, and had then gone back to Eton as an assistant master. 



6 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

The Prince Consort had an interview with Mr. Birch in the 
August of 1 848, and was very favourably impressed. Writing to the 
Duchess of Coburg, he observed : " Bertie will be given over in a 
few weeks into the hands of a tutor, whom we have found in a Mr. 
Birch, a young, good-looking, amiable man. ... It is an important 
step, and God's blessing be upon it, for upon the good education of 




The Prince of Wales at the Age of Three 

From the Painting by W. Hensel, in the possession of the German Emperor 

Princes, and especially of those who are destined to govern, the 
welfare of the world in these days greatly depends." 

In the same summer the Prince, who, as we have already seen, is 
Earl of Dublin as well as Earl of Chester, visited Ireland for the first 
time. He landed with his parents at Oueenstown, and received a 
splendid ovation, which probably laid the foundation of his hearty 
sympathy with and liking for the Irish character. Curiously enough, 
the Prince had visited Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, and had made a 



8 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

very good impression upon the " Celtic fringe " before he was brought 
before the public notice of his future English subjects. 

He made his first official appearance in London on 30th October 
1849. ^^ had been arranged that the Queen was to be present at 
the opening of the Coal Exchange, but she was not able to go as 




The Rev. Henry Mildred Birch, the Prince's First Tutor 

Photograph by Eastham, Manchezter 



she was suffering from chicken-pox. Accordingly it was arranged 
that the Princess Royal and the Prince of Wales should represent 
their Royal mother. 

" Puss and the boy," as the Oueen called them, went with their 
father in State from Westminster to the city in the Royal barge 
rowed by twenty-six watermen. All London turned out to meet 



BIRTH AND EARLY EDUCATION 9 

the gallant little Prince and his pretty sister. Lady Lyttelton, in a 
letter to Mrs. Gladstone, gives a charming account of the event, and 
tells how the Prince Consort was careful to put the Prince of Wales 
forward. Some city dignitary addressed the young Prince as " the 
pledge and promise of a long race of Kings," and, says Lady Lyttelton, 
" poor Princey did not seem to guess at all what he meant." In 




The Oueen, the Prince Consort, and their Children 

From the Painting by WinUrhalter 

honour of the Royal children a great many quaint old city customs 
were revived, including a swan barge, and both the Prince of Wales 
and the Princess Royal seem to have retained a very delightful 
recollection of their first sight of the City. 

It must have been about this time that Miss Alcott, the author 
of Little TVomen, paid a visit to London, and sent home to her 
family the following description of the Prince : — " A yellow-haired 
laddie, very like his mother. Fanny, W., and I nodded and waved 



lO 



THE PRINCE OF WALES 



as he passed, and he openly winked his boyish eye at us, for Fanny 
with her yellow curls and wild waving looked rather rowdy, and the 
poor little Prince wanted some fun." 

Two years later the Prince assisted at the opening of the Great 
Exhibition of 185 1 ; and in the same year Mr. Birch retired from 




The Prince of Wales at the Age of Eight, and the Duke of 
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha at the Age of Five 

From the Painting by F. Winterhalter 

his responsible post, greatly to the sorrow of his young pupil, who 
was a most affectionate and open-hearted little boy. 

In the June of 1852 Viscountess Canning wrote from Windsor 
Castle : " Mr. Birch left yesterday. It has been a terrible sorrow to 
the Prince of Wales, who has done no end of touching things since 
he heard that he was to lose him three weeks ago. He is such an 



BIRTH AND EARLY EDUCATION 



II 



affectionate, dear little boy ; his little notes and presents, which Mr. 
Birch used to find on his pillow, were really too moving." 




The Landing of the Queen at Aberdeen in 184.9 

From a Painting by Cleland 

As was natural, there were many discussions as to who should 
become the Prince's next tutor. On the recommendation of Sir 
James Stephen, Mr. Frederick W. Gibbs was appointed. He re- 



12 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

mained in his responsible position till 1858, and was rarely separated 
from his Royal pupil during those seven years. 

But although so very much attention was devoted to the education 
and mental training of the Prince, he spent a very happy and un- 
clouded childhood ; and, like all the Queen's children, he is very fond 
of referring to the days spent by him as a boy in his parents' Scotch 
and English homes, Balmoral, Osborne, and Windsor. 

The Baroness Bunsen in her Memoirs gives a charming account 
of a Masque devised by the Royal children in honour of the anniver- 
sary of the Queen and the Prince Consort's marriage. The Prince 
of Wales, then twelve years old, represented Winter. He wore a 
cloak covered with imitation icicles, and recited some passages from 
Thomson's Seasons. Princess Alice was Spring, scattering flowers ; 
the Princess Royal, Summer ; Prince Alfred, Autumn ; while 
Princess Helena, in the role of St. Helena, the mother of Constantine, 
who was, according to tradition, a native of Britain, called down 
Heaven's benedictions on her much-loved parents. 

Shortly before this pretty scene took place, the Prince of Wales 
had made his first appearance in the House of Lords, sitting beside 
the Queen upon the Throne. It was on this occasion that the 
addresses of the two Houses in answer to the Queen's Message 
announcing the beginning of hostilities in the Crimean war were 
presented, and there is no doubt that the sad and terrible months 
that followed made a deep and lasting impression on H.R.H. 
He took the most vivid interest in the fortune of the war, and in 
March 1855 went with his parents to the Military Hospital at 
Chatham, where a large number of the wounded had recently 
arrived from the East. 

The popular concern was exhibited in many ingenious and touch- 
ing ways. An Exhibition was held at Burlington House in aid of 
the Patriotic Fund, and all the Royal children who were old enough 
sent drawings and paintings, the Prince's exhibit obtaining the 
very considerable sum of 55 guineas. 

The worst of the terrible struggle was over by the time the 
Prince of Wales and the Princess Royal accompanied their parents 
to Paris in the August of the same year. The visit was in many ways 
historically eventful. Queen Victoria was the first British Sovereign 



BIRTH AND EARLY EDUCATION 



13 



to enter Paris since the days of Henry VI., and the Royal party 
received a truly splendid reception. The young Prince and his 
sister, however, were not allowed to be idle, and though they shared 




The Prince in 1847 

From the Painting by Winterhalter 



to a great extent in the entertainments organised in honour ot the 
Queen and of the Prince Consort, their headquarters remained the 
whole time in the charming country palace of St. Cloud, and after 



H 



THE PRINCE OF WALES 



sight-seeing in Paris all day, they were always driven back there 
each evening. It is undoubtedly to the impression left by this visit 
that the Prince of Wales owes his strong affection and liking for 
France and the French people. When present at a splendid review, 
held in honour of the Queen, he attracted quite as much attention 
as any of his elders, for he was dressed in full Highland costume, 
and remained in the carriage with his mother and the Empress, 
while the Emperor and the Prince Consort were on horseback. 




Sketching at Loch Laggan — The Oueen with the Prince of Wales 
AND the Princess Royal 

F7'o?n the Painting by Landseer^ published in 1858 



The British Royal party remained in France eight days. The 
last gala given in their honour was a splendid ball at Versailles, and 
on this occasion both the Prince of Wales and the Princess Royal 
were allowed to be present, and sat down to supper with the 
Emperor and Empress. There had not been a dance given at 
Versailles since the days of Louis XVI. 

One of the most pleasing traits in Napoleon III.'s character 



BIRTH AND EARLY EDUCATION 15 

was his great liking for children. As was natural, he paid consider- 
able attention to his youthful guests, who both became much attached 
to him ; and later, when he was living at Chislehurst a broken-hearted 




OuEEN Victoria and the Young Prince 

After the Painting by Thorhurn 

exile, the Prince of Wales never lost an opportunity of paying him 
respectful and kindly attentions. Indeed, the Prince of Wales enjoyed 
his first Continental holiday so heartily, that he begged the Empress 



1 6 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

to get leave for his sister and himself to stay a little longer after his 
parents were gone home. When with some embarrassment she 
replied that the Queen and the Prince Consort would not be able to 
do without their two children, he exclaimed, " Not do without us ! 
don't fancy that, for there are six more of us at home, and they 
don't want us " ; but it need hardly be added that this naive exclama- 
tion did not have the desired effect, and the young people duly 
returned home with their parents. 

A few days later, the Prince Consort, writing to Baron Stockmar, 
observed : " You will be pleased to hear how well both the children 
behaved. They have made themselves general favourites, especially 
the Prince of Wales, qui est si gentile And on the same topic the 
Prince wrote to the Duchess of Kent : " I am bound to praise 
the children greatly. They behaved extremely well and pleased 
everybody. The task was no easy one for them, but they discharged 
it without embarrassment and with natural simplicity." 

When the Prince was fourteen he started on an incognito walk- 
ing tour in the west of England with Mr. Gibbs and Col, Cavendish. 
His father wrote to Baron Stockmar : " Bertie's tour has hitherto 
gone off well and seems to interest him greatly." Then followed a 
short time spent in Germany, the greater portion of which was passed 
at Konigswinter, on the Rhine, 

The Prince of Wales was confirmed in April 1858 ; the Prince 
Consort gives an interesting account of the ceremony. "They were 
all three (Lords Palmerston, Russell, and Derby) at the confirmation 
of the Prince of Wales, which went off with great solemnity, and, I 
hope, with an abiding impression on his mind. The previous day, 
his examination took place before the Archbishop and ourselves, 
Wellesley prolonged it to a full hour, and Bertie acquitted himself 
extremely well," The day following his confirmation the Prince 
received the sacrament with his father and mother. 

Shortly after a fourteen days' tour in the south of Ireland under- 
taken by way of recreation, it was arranged that His Royal Highness 
should take up his residence at White Lodge, Richmond, He ac- 
cordingly did so, and the suite of rooms that he occupied while there 
still bears his name. The Oueen and the Prince Consort, anxious that 
he should not be lonely, appointed as his companions three young 



BIRTH AND EARLY EDUCATION 



17 



men slightly older than himself. One was Lord Valletort, the eldest 
son of the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe ; the second, Major Teesdale, 
who had greatly distinguished himself at Kars, and who remained 
one of the Prince's most intimate friends till his death ; and the third, 




The Prince in 1859 

From a Painting by G. Richmond 



Major Lindsay of the Scots Fusiliers, who had received the Victoria 
Cross for his gallantry at Alma and Inkerman. 

By Her Majesty's special desire, Charles Kingsley about this 
time delivered a series of lectures on history to her eldest son, and 
the Prince remained fondly attached to the famous author of 
Westward Ho^ who, till his death, was an honoured guest at Sand- 
ringham and at Marlborough House. 

c 



1 8 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

On 9th November of the same year the Prince of Wales attained 
his eighteenth year, and became legally heir to the Crown. The 
^ueen wrote him a letter announcing his emancipation from parental 
control, and he was so touched by its perusal that he brought it to 
General Wellesley with tears in his eyes, and we have the impartial 
testimony of Charles Greville as to the character of the epistle, 
which was, says the famous diarist, " one of the most admirable 
letters that ever was penned." On the same day he became a 
Colonel in the Army, and received the Garter, while Colonel Bruce 
became his governor. 

Exactly a month after his birthday, the Prince started on a 
Continental tour, travelling more or less incognito as Baron 
Renfrew. He was accompanied by Mr. Tarver, who had just been 
appointed his chaplain and director of studies. The Prince stayed 
some time in Rome and visited the Pope, but on 29th April 1859 
the Prince Consort wrote to Baron Stockmar : " We have sent 
orders to the Prince of Wales to leave Rome and to repair to 
Gibraltar." For it was very properly considered, that owing to the 
Franco-Italian and Austrian imbroglio, it was far better that the 
heir to the British throne should be well out of the way of inter- 
national dissensions. 

The Prince reached Gibraltar on 7th May, and visited the 
south of Spain and Lisbon, returning home in the middle of the 
next month ; and then, after having seen something of the world, 
he again took up a very serious course of study, this time at 
Edinburgh. Meanwhile the education and training of the Heir- 
Apparent was being watched very carefully by the British public, 
and a good many people began to consider that their future 
King was being over -educated ; indeed Punch, in some lines 
entitled " A Prince at High Pressure," undoubtedly summed up 
the popular feeling, not only describing the past, but prophesying, 
with a great deal of shrewd insight, the future course of the Prince 
of Wales's studies : 

To the south from the north, from the shores of the Forth, 
Where at hands Presbyterian pure science is quaffed, 

The Prince, in a trice, is whipped to the Isis, 

Where Oxford keeps springs medieval on draught. 



BIRTH AND EARLY EDUCATION 19 

Dipped in grey Oxford mixture (lest that prove a fixture), 
The poor lad's to be plunged in less orthodox Cam., 

Where dynamics and statics, and pure mathematics, 
Will be piled on his brain's awful cargo of cram. 

But the Prince seems to have borne his course of study very well, 
and after his son had been in Edinburgh some three months the 
Prince Consort wrote to Baron Stockmar : "In Edinburgh I had 
an Educational Conference with all the persons who were taking 




Christ Church, Oxford 

part in the education of the Prince of Wales. They all speak 
highly of him, and he seems to have shown zeal and goodwill. Dr. 
Lyon Playfair is giving him lectures on chemistry in relation to 
manufactures, and at the close of each special course he visits the 
appropriate manufactory with him, so as to explain its practical 
application. Dr. Schmitz (the Director of the High School of 
Edinburgh, a German) gives him lectures on Roman history. 
Italian, German, and French are advanced at the same time ; and 
three times a week the Prince exercises with the i6th Hussars, who 
are stationed in the city. Mr. Fisher, who is to be the tutor for 



20 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

Oxford, was also in Holyrood. Law and history are to be the 
subjects on which he is to prepare the Prince." 

The young Prince spent a dehghtful holiday in the Highlands, 
and made an expedition up Ben Muichdhui, one of the highest 
mountains in Scotland. Then, on 9th November, His Royal High- 
ness's nineteenth birthday was celebrated with the whole of his 
family, for the Princess Royal had arrived from Berlin in order to 
spend the day with her brother. 

The Prince of Wales was at that time very fond of the writings 
of Sir Walter Scott. He has always been a reader of fiction, 
French, English, and German, and as a youth he was studious and 
eager to learn. 

On leaving Scotland he went to Oxford, being admitted a 
member of Christ Church. The Prince seems to have thoroughly 
enjoyed his life as an undergraduate. He joined freely in the social 
life of the University, and took part in all the sports, frequently 
hunting with the South Oxfordshire Hounds. 




NEWFOUNDLAND 
'^John's 



ATLANTIC OCEAN 




The Tour in Canada and the United States, i860 



CHAPTER II 



THE PRINCE S VISIT TO CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES 



During the Crimean war, Canada, stirred, as seem to have been all 
the British colonies, by the direful stress of the mother country, 
levied and equipped a regiment of infantry. In return, the 
Canadians had asked Her Majesty to visit her American possessions ; 
but it was considered undesirable that the Queen should be exposed 
to the fatigue and the risks of so long a journey. 

Her Majesty was then asked to appoint one of her sons Governor- 
General of the Dominion, but the extreme youth of all the Princes 
made that quite out of the question. The Queen, nevertheless, 
formally promised that when the Prince of Wales was old enough 
he should visit Canada in her stead. When the Prince was well on 
in his eighteenth year his parents decided that it was time for this 
promise to be fulfilled, the more so that it would enable the great 
railway bridge across the St. Lawrence at Montreal to be opened, 
and the foundation-stone of the Parliament buildings at Ottawa to 
be laid, by a Prince of the blood. 

The Prince Consort, with the care and forethought which always 
distinguished him in such matters, made a most careful choice of 
those who were to accompany his young son. Both the Queen and 
he felt the greatest confidence in the Duke of Newcastle, and with 
him Prince Albert arranged all the details of the Prince's Canadian 
visit. The careful and kindly father forgot nothing that might be 
needed. Not only did he take special pains to secure that the young 
Prince should learn something of the history, customs, and prejudices 



22 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

of the Canadian people, but he supplied the Duke with memoranda 
which might be found useful in drawing up the answers to be made 
to the addresses which were certain to be presented to the Prince of 
Wales during his progress through the Dominion. The best proof of 
the Prince Consort's wisdom is to be found in the fact that every one 
of these notes afterwards turned out to be simply invaluable, owing 




The Duke of Newcastle 

to the peculiar aptness with which they had been framed to suit the 
circumstances of each locality where an address was likely to be 
received. 

When it became known on the American Continent that the 
Prince of Wales was really coming to Canada, the President of the 
United States, Mr. Buchanan, wrote to the Queen explaining how 
cordial a welcome the Prince of Wales would receive at Washington 
should he extend his visit to the United States. 



VISIT TO CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES 23 

Her Majesty returned a cordiia.1 answer, informing Mr. Buchanan, 
and through him the American people, that the Prince would return 
home through America, and that it would give him great pleasure to 
have an opportunity of testifying to the President in person the 
kindly feelings which animate the British nation to America. At 
the same time the American people were told that the future British 
Sovereign would, from the moment of his leaving British soil, drop 
all Royal state, and that he would simply travel as " Lord Renfrew." 
In this again Her Majesty showed her great wisdom, for it would 
have been extremely awkward for the Prince of Wales, the descendant 
of George III., to have visited the American Republic in his quality 
as Heir-Apparent to the British Throne. 

After a pleasant but uneventful voyage on board the frigate Hero, 
escorted by H.M.S. Ariadne, the Prince of Wales first stepped 
on Transatlantic soil at St. John's, Newfoundland, on 24th July 1 860. 
The morning was rainy, but the moment His Royal Highness 
landed the sun shone out, bursting through the clouds, and this was 
considered by those present to be a very happy omen. 

On that day the Prince may be said to have really had his first 
glimpse of the round of official duties to which he seemed to take 
naturally and in which he was destined to become so expert. 

After the Governor of Newfoundland had been formally presented 
to the Prince, the Royal party, which comprised, in addition to His 
Royal Highness, the Duke of Newcastle, General Bruce, and Major 
Teesdale, went straight to Government House, where the Prince held 
a reception, and listened to a considerable number of addresses. 
The day did not end till the next morning, for in the evening a 
grand ball was given by Sir Alexander Bannerman, and our future 
King won all hearts by mixing freely with the company, and dancing, 
not only with the ladies belonging to the Government and official 
circles, but with the wives and daughters of the fishermen. It was 
noticed that the Prince was quite remarkably like the portraits of his 
Royal mother on the British coins, and he displayed not only in 
Newfoundland, but during the many fatiguing days that followed, 
the extraordinary tact and admirable breeding which have continually 
year after year increased the affection with which he is regarded by 
the British people. 



24 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

The wife of the then Archdeacon of St. John's, in an interesting 
letter home, puts on record the impression produced by His Royal 
Highness in Newfoundland : — 

" His appearance is very much in his favour, and his youth and 
royal dignified manners and bearing seem to have touched all hearts, 
for there is scarcely a man or woman who can speak of him without 
tears. The rough fishermen and their wives are quite wild about 




The Prince's Landing at Montreal 

Fi-om a contemporary picture in the " Illustrated London Neivs " 

him, and we hear of nothing but their admiration. Their most 
frequent exclamation is, ' God bless his pretty face and send him a 
good wife.'" 

At Halifax the news that his sister, the Princess Royal of Prussia, 
had given birth to a little daughter met him, and he hastened to 
write home his affectionate congratulations on the event. 

The Prince's tour through Canada may be said to have been one 
long triumphal procession. It was marred by no unpleasant incident, 



VISIT TO CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES 25 

in spite of the fact that at Kingston and Toronto the Orangemen 
tried to induce the Prince to pass under arches decorated with their 
party symbols and mottoes. Thanks, however, to the Duke ot 
Newcastle's tact and firmness, the attempt failed, and the incident 
merely served to illustrate the young Prince's freedom from party 
bias. Everywhere the Royal visitor produced the happiest impres- 
sions, and, thanks to his youth, he was able to endure considerable 
fatigue without apparently being any the worse for it. 




The Prince of Wales laying the Last Stone of the Victoria Bridge over 

THE St. Lawrence 

From the " Illustrated London Neivs " 

In America " Baron Renfrew's " arrival was awaited with the 
utmost impatience, and while travelling over the Dominion His Royal 
Highness was surrounded by American reporters. Indeed, it is said 
that the Prince of Wales's visit to Canada formed the first occasion 
on which press telegrams were used to any lavish extent. One 
enterprising journalist used to transmit to his paper long chapters 
from the Gospel according to St. Matthew and from the Book 
of Revelation in order to monopolise the wires while he was 



26 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

gathering material for his daily report of the Royal journey. At a 
great ball given in Quebec, the Prince tripped and fell with his 
partner — the article recording this event was headed, Honi soit 
qui mal y pense. fk^^ 

The Royal visit to Montreal is still remembered in Canada. 
The Prince and his suite arrived there on 25th August, and the 
Prince, after opening a local exhibition, inaugurating a bridge, 
holding a review, and attending some native games, danced all night 
with the greatest spirit, even singing with the band when it struck 
up his favourite air. 

Many little stories were told of His Royal Highness's good- 
nature and affability. Hearing by accident that an old sailor who 
had served with Nelson on board the Trafalgar had been court- 
martialled, the Prince begged him off, and asked that he might be 
restored to his rank in the service. 

The Canadian Government provided a number of riding-horses 
in order that the Prince might see Niagara Falls from several 
points of view, and he has since often declared that this was 
one of the finest sights he ever saw in his life. Next day, in the 
presence of the Royal party and of thousands of spectators, Canadian 
and American, the famous rope-walker, Blondin, crossed Niagara 
river upon a rope, walking upon stilts, and carrying a man on his 
back. After the ordeal was over, Blondin had the honour of being 
presented to the Prince. The latter, with much emotion, exclaimed, 
" Thank God, it is all over ! " and begged him earnestly not to 
attempt the feat again, but the famous rope-walker assured His Royal 
Highness that there was no danger whatever, and offered to carry 
him across on his back if he would go, but the Prince briefly 
declined ! The Prince seems to have been quite fascinated by the 
marvellous Falls. On 1 7th September he insisted on riding over on 
American ground for a farewell view of Niagara. 

The Prince of Wales formally crossed from Canadian territory 
to the States on the night of 20th September, making his appearance 
on Republican soil, as had been arranged, as Baron Renfrew. At 
Hamilton, the last place in Canada where he halted, the Prince 
made a speech, in the course of which he observed : 

" My duties as Representative of the Queen cease this day, but 



VISIT TO CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES 27 

in a private capacity I am about to visit before I return home that 
remarkable land which claims with us a common ancestry, and in 
whose extraordinary progress every Englishman feels a common 
interest." 

Great as had been the enthusiasm in Canada, it may be said to 
have been nothing to tht furore of excitement produced in America 
by the Prince of Wales's visit. At Detroit the crowds were so 
dense that the Royal party could not get to their hotel through 
the main streets, and had to be smuggled in at a side entrance. The 
whole city was illuminated ; every craft on the river had hung out 
lamps ; and, as one individual aptly put it, " there could not have 
been greater curiosity to see him if the distinguished visitor had 
been George Washington come to life again." 

Over 50,000 people came out to meet His Royal Highness at 
Chicago, then a village of unfinished streets, but there, for the first 
time, the Prince broke down from sheer fatigue, and the Duke of 
Newcastle decided that it would be better to break the trip from 
Chicago to St. Louis by stopping at a quiet village, famed even then 
for the good sport to be obtained in its neighbourhood. Accordingly 
His Royal Highness had a day's shooting at Dwight's Station. Four- 
teen brace of quails and four rabbits fell to the Prince's gun. A 
rather absurd incident marred the complete pleasure of the day. As 
the Royal party approached a farmhouse an unmistakably British 
settler appeared at the door and invited every one excepting the Duke 
of Newcastle to enter. " Not you, Newcastle," he shouted ; " I have 
been a tenant of yours, and have sworn that you shall never set a 
foot on my land." Accordingly the party passed on, and the farmer, 
though revenged on his old landlord, had to forgo the honour of 
entertaining Royalty under his roof. 

But notwithstanding this contretemps the Prince seems to have 
thoroughly enjoyed his little outing. At one moment, when he 
was out on the prairie, he and his companions desired to smoke, but 
nobody had a light. At last a single match was found, but no one 
volunteered to strike it. Lots were drawn with blades of the prairie 
grass, and the Prince drew the shortest blade. The others held their 
coats and hats round him whilst he lighted the match, and he once 
said that he has never felt so nervous before or since. 



2 8 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

On 30th October " Lord Renfrew " reached Washington, and Lord 
Lyons, the British Minister, introduced him to President Buchanan, 
and Miss Harriet Lane, the latter's niece and housekeeper. The 
Prince stayed at the White House, and President James Buchanan, 
though he could not spare his Royal guest a certain number oi levees 
and receptions, did his best to make his visit to the official centre of 
the American Republic pleasant. During these five days there 
occurred a most interesting event — the visit of His Royal Highness 
to Mount Vernon, and the tomb of Washington. A representative 
of the Times gave the following eloquent account of the scene : — 

" Before this humble tomb the Prince, the President, and all the 
party stood uncovered. It is easy moralising on this visit, for there 
is something grandly suggestive of historical retribution in the 
reverential awe of the Prince of Wales, the great-grandson of George 
III., standing bareheaded at the foot of the coffin of Washington. 
For a few moments the party stood mute and motionless, and the 
Prince then proceeded to plant a chestnut by the side of the tomb. 
It seemed, when the Royal youth closed in the earth around the little 
germ, that he was burying the last faint trace of discord between us 
and our great brethren in the West." 

Doubtless the Prince enjoyed these new experiences a good deal 
more than did his guides, philosophers, and friends. Political feeling 
ran high, and the pro-slavery leaders were very anxious to influence 
public sentiment in Great Britain. They formed the project of 
taking the Prince of Wales through the South to see slavery under its 
pleasantest aspect as a paternal institution. After a good deal of dis- 
cussion between the Duke of Newcastle and Lord Lyons, it was felt 
better to accept the invitation of some representative Southerners, and 
accordingly the Prince went a short tour to Richmond ; but it may 
be added that a great slave sale which had been widely advertised was 
postponed so as not to offend British susceptibilities. The Prince 
does not seem to have been at all impressed by the slave cities, and 
he flatly refused to leave his carriage to visit the negro quarters 
at Haxhall's plantation, and so he returned to Washington, having 
shown a good deal more common sense than had those about him. 

The day that the Prince left Washington for Richmond, President 
Buchanan wrote a charming letter to the Queen, in which he said, 



VISIT TO CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES 29 

speaking of his guest : "In our domestic circle he has won all hearts. 
His free and ingenuous intercourse with myself evinced both a kind 
heart and a good understanding." 

From Washington the Prince proceeded to Philadelphia, and 
there, for the first time, His Royal Highness heard Adelina Patti. 
He was so greatly charmed with her marvellous voice and winning 
personality, that he begged that she might be presented to him. 




The Grand Ball given at the Academy of Music, New York 
From the " Illustrated London News " 



The Prince's feelings must have been strangely mixed when he 
stood in Independence Hall, but he does not appear to have revealed 
them by making any remark, and after staying a few days in Phil- 
adelphia he started for New York, where he received a splendid wel- 
come from Father Knickerbocker, being met at the station by the 
Mayor, and driven through Broadway to the Fifth Avenue Hotel. 
Half a million spectators saw him arrive, and so great was the anxiety 
to see Queen Victoria's eldest son at close quarters, that there was 
no structure in New York large enough to contain those who thought 



30 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

that they had — and who no doubt had — a right to meet the Prince 
of Wales at a social function. 

At last a building was found capable of containing 6000 people ; 
but, looking to the question of " crinolines and comfort," it was 
reluctantly decided that not more than 3000 cards of invitation, 
admitting to the ball and to. the supper to follow, should be sent 
out. Fortunately most of the 3000 guests were important people, 
and therefore too old to dance. They represented, in both senses of 
the word, the solid element in New York society, for, as they 
crowded round the Prince, the floor gave way, and it is a wonder 
that no serious accident took place. This splendid entertainment, 
which took place in the old Academy of Music, is still remembered 
by many elderly Americans. The Prince showed his tact and good 
taste by frequently changing his partner. For the supper, a special 
service of china and glass had been manufactured, the Prince's motto, 
Ich Diefty being emblazoned on every piece. 

During the five days that the Prince remained in New York, he 
was the guest of the Mayor and of the Corporation. He seems to 
have most enjoyed a parade of the Volunteer Fire Department in his 
honour. There were 6000 firemen in uniform, and all, save those in 
charge of the ropes and tillers, bore torches. The scene was quite 
unique, and the Prince, as he looked at the brilliant display in 
Madison Square, cried repeatedly, " This is for me, this is all for 
me ! " with unaffected glee. 

From New York the Prince went on to Albany and Boston, and 
at the latter place Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Emerson, 
and a number of other notable Americans were presented to him. 
He visited Harvard College, spent an hour at Mount Auburn, where 
he planted two trees, and drove out to Bunker's Hill. 

Portland was the last place visited by the Prince in the United 
States, and on 20th October the Royal party set sail for home on board 
the Hero, which was escorted by the Ariadne, the Nile, and the Styx. 
The voyage home was not as uneventful as had been the voyage out. 
So anxious were they at Court about the fate of the Hero, that two 
ships of war were sent in search of the frigate and her escort. At 
last, to every one's great relief, the Hero was sighted, and it was 
ascertained that a sudden storm had driven the boat back from the 



VISIT TO CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES 31 

British coast, and the Royal party had been reduced to salt fare, with 
only a week's provisions in store. 

On 9th November the Prince Consort put in his diary : "Bertie's 
birthday. Unfortunately he is still absent, neither do we hear any- 
thing from him." Great, therefore, was the joy of the Queen and 
Prince Albert when, on 1 5th November, they received a telegram 
from Plymouth announcing the safe arrival of their son. That same 
evening the Prince of Wales arrived at Windsor Castle, being greeted 
with the warmest affection by his family and friends. 

The Queen showed the most vivid interest in all her eldest son's 
many and varied adventures. Both Her Majesty and the Prince 
Consort were very much gratified by the way in which the Duke of 
Newcastle had performed his arduous and delicate task, and, after 
some consultation, it was decided that the Queen should publicly 
mark her satisfaction by conferring upon the Duke the Order of the 
Garter, 




Trinity College, Cambridge 



CHAPTER III 



LIFE AT CAMBRIDGE AND THE CURRAGH DEATH OF THE PRINCE 

CONSORT THE PRINCE OF WALEs's TOUR IN THE EAST 



Early in 1861 the Prince of Wales became an undergraduate 
member of Trinity College, Cambridge. Curiously enough, Dr. 
Whewell, at that time Master of Trinity, did not think it necessary 
to make a formal entry of the Royal undergraduate, but in 1883, 
when His Royal Highness was visiting Cambridge in order to enter 
his son, the late Duke of Clarence, as a student of Trinity, the 
Prince expressed the opinion that it was a pity that his own entry 
had not been properly filled up, and he offered to fill in the blank 
spaces if the book was brought to him. Accordingly the record 
may now be found at its proper place in His Royal Highness's own 
handwriting. His entry is as follows : — 



LIFE AT CAMBRIDGE AND THE CURRAGH 32 



Date of entry. 
January i8th, 1861. 


Rank. 
Nobleman. 


Nafne. 

Albert Edward 

Prince of Wales. 


'atker^s Christian Name. 
Albert. 


Native Place. 
London. 


County. 
Middlesex. 


School. 
Private Tutor. 


Age. 

November 9th, 

1841. 


Tutor. 

Admitted by order of the 

Seniority, Mr. Mathison 

being his tutor. 



The entry immediately preceding the Prince's name is that of' 
the Hon, J. W, Strutt (now Lord Rayleigh), in connection with 
which the following amusing story is told. A visitor to the library 
(where the book is kept) having expressed her doubts as to the 
Prince's intellectual abilities, the librarian showed her the entry, and 
said : " You may be right in what you say, madam, but allow me 
to inform you that the Prince comes next to a former Senior 
Wrangler." The lady's astonishment may be imagined, she being 
of course ignorant that mere coincidence was the cause of the juxta- 
position of the two names. 

The position of the Prince in the University was very much that 
of an ordinary undergraduate, except in one point — that he was, by 
special favour, allowed to live with his governor. Colonel the Hon. 
Robert Bruce, about three miles away from Cambridge, in a little 
village called Madingley. 

Charles Kingsley at the Prince Consort's request gave some 
private lectures to the Prince of Wales. The class was formed of 
eleven undergraduates, and after the Prince of Wales settled at 
Madingley, he rode three times a week to Mr. Kingsley's house, 
twice attending with the class, and once to go through a resume of the 
week's work alone ; and, according to the great writer's biographer, 
the tutor much appreciated the attention, courtesy, and intelligence 
of his Royal pupil, whose kindness to him then and in after-life made 
him not only the Prince's loyal but his most attached servant. 

The Prince certainly enjoyed his life at Cambridge. All sorts 
of stories, perhaps more or less apocryphal, used to be told as to 
His Royal Highness's University career. He was not allowed quite 
as much freedom as the ordinary undergraduate, and Colonel Bruce 



34 



THE PRINCE OF WALES 



had strict orders never to allow him to make any long journeys un- 
accompanied. On one occasion the Prince made up his mind that 
he would like to pay an incognito visit to London, and he succeeded 
in evading the vigilance of those whose duty it was to attend him. 
His absence, however, was discovered before he could reach town, 
and to his surprise and mortification he was met at Paddington by 

the station-master and by two 
of the Royal servants who had 
been sent from Buckingham 
Palace for that purpose. 

Shortly after his marriage 
the Prince took his bride to 
visit Cambridge, and after the 
usual reception, the Royal pair 
drove to Madingley, to view 
His Royal Highness's former 
residence. On reaching one of 
the streets on the borders of 
the town it was found to be 
barricaded, it being thought 
that the carriage would pro- 
ceed by another route. "This 
is the way I always came," said 
the Prince, "and this is the 
way I wish to go now." Forth- 
with the sightseers were re- 
moved and the barricade broken 
down, but the Prince signified 
his intention of returning by the other road so that the spectators 
might not be disappointed. 

The Prince remained more or less constantly at Cambridge all 
the winter of 1861, and it was arranged that during the long 
vacation he was to go on military duty at the Curragh. 

While the Prince was quartered there, the Queen, the Prince 
Consort, and the young Princesses paid a short visit to Ireland in 
order to see His Royal Highness in his new character of soldier. 
On 26th August Her Majesty wrote in her diary : 




The Prince in 1861 

Photograph by Sil-vy 



LIFE AT CAMBRIDGE AND THE CURRAGH ^S 

'^ At a little before 3 we went to Bertie's hut, which is in fact 
Sir George Brown's. It is very comfortable— a nice little bedroom, 
sitting-room, drawing-room, and good-sized dining-room, where we 
lunched with our whole party. Colonel Percy commands the Guards, 
and Bertie is placed specially under him. I spoke to him, and thanked 
him for treating Bertie as he did, just like any other officer, for I know 
that he keeps him up to his work in a way, as General Bruce told 
me, that no one else has done ; and yet Bertie likes him very much." 
On the following day, which was a Sunday, the Prince Consort 
accompanied by the Prince of Wales and Prince Alfred, went with 
Lord Carlisle to inspect the Dublin prisons. 

Prince Albert spent his last birthday, 26th August 1861, with his 
son in Ireland, and the Prince of Wales accompanied his parents and 
^sters to Killarney, where they had a very enthusiastic welcome 
They travelled on the Prince Consort's birthday. On the 29th the 
Queen and the Prince, with their younger children, left Ireland, and 
writing to Baron Stockmar on 6th September the Prince Consort said: 
" The Prince of Wales has acquitted himself extremely well in the 
Camp, and looks forward with pleasure to his visit to the manceuvres 
on the Rhine." 

It was during the autumn of this year that the Prince of Wales, 
during a short visit to Germany, met Princess Alexandra of Denmark 
for the first time. To the Prince Consort's great annoyance, a 
whisper of a projected royal alliance between Great Britain and 
Denmark had got abroad, and with the delicacy and good feehng 
which always distinguished him. Prince Albert greatly deplored that 
this should have been so, for had the young Prince and Princess not 
taken an instant liking to one another, these rumours would have 
been greatly to be regretted. As it was, the Prince Consort was 
able to write on 14th October to Baron Stockmar : " The Prince of 
Wales leaves to-morrow for Cambridge. He came back greatly 
pleased with his interview with the Princess of Holstein at 
Speier. ... His present wish, after his time at the University is up, 
which it will be at Christmas, is to travel; and we have gladly 
assented to his proposal to visit the Holy Land. This, under exist- 
ing circumstances, is the most useful tour he can make, and will 
occupy him till early in June." 



26 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

The Prince Consort that same autumn went specially to London 
in order to inspect the alterations that were being made at Marl- 
borough House, which was then being actively prepared as a resi- 
dence ; and on the 9th the Queen wrote in her diary : " This is our 
dear Bertie's twentieth birthday. I pray God to assist our efforts to 
make him turn out well. . . . All our people in and out of the 
house came in to dinner. Bertie led me in by Albert's wish, and I 
sat between him and Albert." 

Prince Albert, on 28th November, paid a hurried visit to 
Cambridge in order to visit the Prince of Wales. The weather 
was cold and stormy, and he returned to Windsor with a heavy 
cold. 

The next few days were spent by both the Prince Consort and 
the Queen in considerable anxiety. The seizure of the Trent aroused 
a great deal of bitter public feeling, and the fact that America was 
convulsed by civil war did not make the position of Great Britain 
more easy. The Government took a very determined tone, and the 
Prince Consort, instead of allowing himself to be nursed through his 
feverish attack, spent some hours in composing and writing a draft, 
on the burning question of the day, to Lord Russell. 

The story of those sad days is well known. As time went on, 
the Prince grew slightly worse rather than better, but no real danger 
was apprehended by those nearest and dearest to him, and the Queen 
would not hear of having the Prince of Wales summoned, until at 
last Princess Alice, who behaved with extraordinary fortitude and 
marvellous self-possession, felt that she must send for her eldest 
brother on her own responsibility. She accordingly did so, and the 
Prince arrived in time to be present at his much-loved father's death- 
bed. Although she was herself overwhelmed with bitter grief, it 
was to the Princess Alice that all turned, for the Oueen was 
SO completely overcome that nothing could be referred to her, 
and it was finally arranged that the Prince of Wales and the Prin- 
cesses Alice and Helena should accompany their mother to Osborne, 
where she had consented very reluctantly to go. 

The Prince of Wales returned immediately, in order to complete 
the arrangements for the funeral, and to receive his uncle the Duke 
of Saxe-Coburg, his brother-in-law the Crown Prince of Prussia, and 



TOUR IN THE EAST 37 

the other foreign mourners who were to take part in the last sad 
ceremony. 

The funeral took place on 23rd December, the service being 
held in St. George's Chapel, Windsor. The chief mourner was, of 
course, the Prince of Wales, who was supported, in the absence of 
Prince Alfred (Duke of Edinburgh), by Prince Arthur. All those 
present were deeply moved by the grief of the two young princes. 
They both hid their faces, and after the coffin had been lowered into 
the vault the Prince ot Wales advanced to take a last look and stood 
for one moment looking down ; then, his fortitude deserting him, 
he burst into a flood of tears, and was led away by the Lord 
Chamberlain. 

Sad indeed were the days that followed. The effect of the 
Prince Consort's death on the Prince of Wales's affectionate and 
sensitive nature was terrible, and those about the Court felt that 
something must be done to rouse him from his grief. 

The Prince Consort had long before decided that his eldest son 
should begin his life as a grown-up man by making a tour in the 
Holy Land, and it had also been his earnest wish that His Royal 
Highness should on that occasion be accompanied by the Rev. 
Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, who had himself already taken a journey 
to Jerusalem. Accordingly, when after the Prince Consort's death 
it was decided to carry out his long-cherished scheme with regard to 
the Prince of Wales, the Queen made up her mind that she would 
be guided by his wishes, and General Bruce was commanded to write 
to Dr. Stanley, but not till he reached Osborne was he actually 
asked whether he would consent to undertake the responsibility. 

Dr. Stanley, though he regarded the proposal with reluctance 
and misgiving, for he could not bear to leave his aged mother, to 
whom he was most tenderly devoted, consented to do as the Queen 
wished. It was ultimately arranged that he should meet the Prince 
at Alexandria, ascend the Nile with him, and accompany him, not 
only through the Holy Land, but on the Egyptian portion of the 
expedition. 

On 28th February the Prince, accompanied by General Bruce, 
Major Teesdale, Captain Keppel, and a small suite, was joined 
by Dr. Stanley, the party at once proceeding to Cairo. " The 



38 



THE PRINCE OF WALES 



Prince " wrote General Bruce to his sister, " takesf great delight in 
the new world on which he has entered, and Dr. Stanley is a^great 




Dean Stanley 

Fvojj: a Photograph by the Stereoscopic Co. 



acquisition." They visited the Pyramids together, and then resumed 
their voyage, the Prince characteristically persuading Dr. Stanley to 



TOUR IN THE EAST 



39 



read East Lynne, a book which had greatly struck his imagination. 
When recording the circumstance, Dr. Stanley adds : 

" It is impossible not to like him, and to be constantly with him 
brings out his astonishing memory of names and persons. ... I 
am more and more struck by the amiable and endearing qualities of 
the Prince. . . . His Royal Highness had himself laid down a rule 
that there was to be no shooting to-day (Sunday), and though he 




The Prince of Wales's Reception by Said Pacha, Viceroy of Egypt, 

AT Cairo 

From the " Illustrated London Nenvs" 

was sorely tempted, as we passed flocks of cranes and geese seated 
on the bank in the most inviting crowds, he rigidly conformed to 
it ; a crocodile was allowed to be a legitimate exception, but none 
appeared. He sat alone on the deck with me, talking in the 
frankest manner, for an hour in the afternoon, and made the most 
reasonable and proper remarks on the due observance of Sunday in 
England." 

A sad event which occurred in March was destined to draw 



40 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

closer together the ties which were now binding His Royal Highness 
and his chaplain, for on 23rd March the news was broken to Dr. 
Stanley that his mother was dead. The Prince of Wales showed the 
kindest and most tender consideration for his bereaved travelling 
companion, and was much gratified that Dr. Stanley very wisely 
made up his mind to continue the journey instead of hurrying home 
at once. 

A few days later the Royal party reached Palestine, and it is 
interesting to note that this was the first time that the heir to the 
English throne, since the days of Edward I. and Eleanor, had 
visited the Holy City. The Prince of Wales landed at Jaffa on 31st 
March, and both on his entrance into the Holy Land and during 
his approach to Jerusalem he followed in the footsteps of Richard 
Coeur de Lion and Edward L The cavalcade, escorted by a troop of 
Turkish cavalry, climbed the Pass of Bethhoron, catching their first 
glimpse of Jerusalem from the spot where Richard is recorded to 
have hidden his face in his shield, with the words, " Ah, Lord God, 
if I am not thought worthy to win back the Holy Sepulchre, I am 
not worthy to see it ! " 

The Prince, accompanied by Dr. Stanley, carefully explored 
Jerusalem and its neighbourhood, riding over the hills of Judasa 
to Bethlehem, walking through the famous groves of Jericho, and 
staying some time at Bethany. 

" Late in the afternoon," writes Dr. Stanley, " we reached 
Bethany. I then took my place close beside the Prince. Every 
one else fell back by design or accident, and at the head of the 
cavalcade we moved on towards the famous view. This was the 
one half-hour which, throughout the journey, I had determined to 
have alone with the Prince, and I succeeded." 

During Dr. Stanley's previous journey to the Holy Land he had 
not been permitted to visit the closely-guarded cave of Machpelah, 
but on this occasion, thanks to the diplomacy of General Bruce, not 
only the Prince of Wales, but also his chaplain, was allowed to set 
foot within the sacred precincts. Even to Royal personages the 
Mosque of Hebron had remained absolutely barred for nearly seven 
hundred years, and on the present occasion the Turkish official in 
charge declared that " for no one but for the eldest son of the 



Ml 



TOUR IN THE EAST 41 

Queen of England would he have allowed the gate to be opened ; 
indeed, the Princes of any other nation should have passed over his 
body before doing so." 

His Royal Highness, with his usual thoughtfulness, had made 
Dr. Stanley's entrance with himself a condition of his going in at 
all, and when the latter went up to the Prince to thank him and to 
say that but for him he would never have had this great opportunity, 
the young man answered with touching and almost reproachful 
simplicity, " High station, you see, sir, has, after all, some merits, 
some advantages." "Yes, sir," replied Dr. Stanley, "and I hope 
that you will always make as good a use of it." 

On the party's return to Jerusalem, they witnessed the Samaritan 
Passover, and Easter Sunday, 20th April, was spent by the shores 
of Lake Tiberias. 

During the journey from Tiberias to Damascus the Prince and 
his escort lived in tents, an experience which His Royal Highness 
seems to have thoroughly enjoyed. From Damascus the party 
turned westward, reaching Beyrout on 6th May, and after visiting 
Tyre and Sidon they proceeded to Tripoli. On 13th May His 
Royal Highness left the shores of Syria, visiting on his homeward 
journey Patmos, Ephesus, Smyrna, Constantinople, Athens, and 
Malta. 

It was very characteristic of the Prince that wherever he went he 
collected a number of flowers or leaves from every famous spot, 
which, after having been carefully dried by him, were sent to his 
sister, the Princess Royal. 

It was very soon after his return from the East that the Prince 
of Wales played for the first time an important part in a family 
gathering — the wedding of his favourite sister. Princess Alice, to 
Prince Louis of Hesse. The bride was given away by her uncle, 
the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, but the young Prince of Wales 
acted as master of the house during the quiet week which preceded 
the ceremony. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE PRINCE OF WALEs's MARRIAGE 

As is very generally known, the marriage of the Prince of Wales to 
Princess Alexandra of Denmark was brought about in quite a 
romantic fashion. It is said that long before His Royal Highness 
saw his future wife he was very much attracted by a glimpse of her 
photograph, shown him by one of his friends. Be that as it may, it 
is certain that though many Princesses had been spoken of in con- 
nection with the Prince, and at one time there were actually negotia- 
tions impending with the view of his engagement to the daughter 
of a German Royal House, all such schemes were instantly abandoned 
after he had seen the beautiful Danish Princess. 

The first informal meeting took place in the Cathedral of Worms 
during the Prince's foreign tour in 1861. The Prince, accompanied 
by his tutor and equerry, had gone to examine the frescoes, and when 
wandering through the beautiful old Cathedral they met Prince 
Christian of Denmark and his daughter intent on the same object. 
Somewhat later His Royal Highness again met his future wife when 
he was staying with his sister, the Crown Princess of Prussia, at 
Heidelberg, and the Prince Consort puts on record in his diary that 
" the young people seem to have taken a warm liking for each other." 

Later, after the Prince Consort's death, during a short visit which 
he paid to his cousin, the King of the Belgians, the Prince again met 
Princess Alexandra, and it is said that King Leopold had a con- 
siderable share in arranging the preliminaries of the marriage, for it 
was while the Prince and Princess were both staying at Laeken that 
the Queen's formal consent to her son's making a Danish alliance was 
granted. 



THE PRINCE OF WALES'S MARRIAGE 43 

The formal betrothal took place on 9th September 1 862, but even 
then what had occurred was only known to a comparatively small 
circle of friends and relations, for it was not till the eve of His 
Royal Highness's coming of age that his engagement was formally 




The Prinxess Alexandra of Denmark 
From a Photograph in the possession of the King of Denmark, taken on 1st December 1862 



announced in the London Gazette and so made known to the whole 

British Empire. 

I The announcement roused the greatest enthusiasm, for deep as 

I had been the public sympathy with Her Majesty, a widowed Court 
' could not but cast a very real gloom, not only over society, but over 



44 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

all those directly and indirectly interested in the sumptuary trades 
and the wide distribution of wealth. It was universally felt that the 
marriage of the Heir-Apparent would inaugurate a new era of 
prosperity, and scarce a dissenting voice was raised at the very liberal 
grant voted by the House of Commons for the Royal couple. 

On the proposal of Lord Palmerston, it was decided that the 
Prince of Wales should receive from the country an income of 
j^40,ooo a year, with an added _^ 10,000 a year to be specially set 
apart for the Princess. And so it came to pass that the Heir- 
Apparent and his bride began housekeeping with an income of 
somewhat over _j^ 100,000 a year, for, owing to the Prince Consort's 
foresight and good sense, out of the savings made during his son's 
long minority, Sandringham, of which the initial cost was _^220,ooo, 
had been purchased. 

Unlike most Royal engagements, that of the Prince and Princess 
of Wales lasted nearly six months, but active preparations for the 
wedding did not begin till the official announcement had been made. 

Although Princess Alexandra had. visited England as a child in 
order to make the acquaintance of her great-aunt, the Duchess of 
Cambridge, it was at Laeken that she was presented to her future 
mother-in-law. Queen Victoria, who was then paying a visit incognito 
to King Leopold. Later on, the young Princess, accompanied by 
her father, paid the Queen an informal visit at Osborne. She did 
not on this occasion come to London or take part in any public 
function, but rumours of her beauty and of her charm of manner had 
become rife, and as the wedding day, which had been fixed for 
loth March, approached, the public interest and excitement were 
strung to the highest pitch. It was felt that Denmark's loss was 
Britain's gain, and Alfred Tennyson, the Poet Laureate, voiced most 
happily the universal feeling in his fine lines : 

Clash, ye bells, in the merry March air ! 
Flash, ye cities, in rivers of fire ! 

And welcome her, welcome the land's desire, 

Alexandra. 

Even the humblest of Her Majesty's subjects usually finds a good 
deal to do during the weeks that precede his marriage, and it will 



THE PRINCE OF WALES'S MARRIAGE 45 

be easily understood that the high station of the Prince of Wales 
rather augmented than diminished these engrossing occupations. 




The Prince on Coming of Age 

From an Engraving published by Henry Gra-ves and Co. 

He had to receive and suitably acknowledge countless addresses of 
congratulation from individuals, corporations, and other public 
bodies ; he had to superintend the extensive alterations which were 



46 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

still being carried out at Marlborough House ; he had to pass in 
review the innumerable details of the various elaborate functions 
which were to mark the occasion of his marriage ; and last but not 
least it was considered desirable that he should now go through the 
somewhat trying ceremony of taking his seat in the House of 
Lords. 

Nearly three-quarters of a century had elapsed since the Heir- 
Apparent to the British Crown had taken the oath and his seat as a 
Peer of the Realm. It was on 5th February 1863, within a few 
weeks of his marriage, that the Prince of Wales went through this 
historic ceremony, and it is a curious fact that the business before 
the House of Lords on that occasion was an Address from the 
Crown to the British Parliament announcing the Prince's approaching 
marriage. It is also noteworthy that soon after the ceremony the 
two chief dignitaries of the English Church, the new Archbishops 
of Canterbury and York, also took the oaths and their seats upon the 
Episcopal benches of the House. 

The Duchess of Cambridge and Princess Mary and a brilliant 
array of Peeresses and ladies from the various foreign Embassies and 
Legations were present at the ceremony, which was invested with a 
great deal of pomp and solemnity. After prayers had been read by 
the Bishop of Worcester, a procession emerged from the Prince's 
Chamber, and advanced slowly up the floor of the House. First 
came the Usher of the Black Rod, followed immediately by the 
Garter King at Arms, attired in his robes. Then came the Prince of 
Wales, preceded by an equerry, bearing his coronet on an embroidered 
crimson cushion. His Royal Highness was also accompanied by 
the Duke of Cambridge, the Duke of Argyll, the Hereditary Grand 
Chamberlain, and Lord Edward Howard, who represented the infant 
Duke of Norfolk, Hereditary Earl Marshal. 

The Prince of Wales wore the scarlet and ermine robes of a 
Duke over the uniform of a General. He also wore the Order of 
the Garter, the Order of the Golden Fleece, and the Order of the 
Star of India. As he entered the House, the Peers rose in a body, 
the Lord Chancellor alone remaining seated and covered with his 
official hat. His Royal Highness then advanced to the Woolsack, 
and placed his patent of peerage and writ of summons in the hands 



THE PRINCE OF WALES'S MARRIAGE 47 

of the Chancellor. The oaths were administered to him at the 
table by the Clerk of Parliament, the titles under which the Prince 
was sworn being those of Duke of Cornwall, Earl of Chester, Earl 
of Carrick, Earl of Rothesay, and Lord of the Isles. 

After the roll had been signed the procession moved on, and 
His Royal Highness, on reaching the right-hand side of the Throne, 




The Princess in 1863 

From the Painting by Madame Jerichau^ published by Henry Gra'ues and Co. 

took his seat upon the Chair of State specially appropriated on 
State occasions to the Prince of Wales. While thus seated he placed 
on his head the cocked hat worn by general officers in full dress. 
The Prince and the other Peers finally left the House, retiring by 
the entrance at the right of the Throne in the same order as they 
had entered. 

About an hour later His Royal Highness re-entered the House 
dressed in ordinary afternoon costume, and took his seat on one of 



48 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

the cross-benches, thereby formally dissociatnig himself from either 
political party. The Prince remained almost throughout the entire 
debate. When leaving he shook hands with the Earl of Derby and 
a number of other Peers whom he recognised. 

As is well known, the only votes which the Prince has ever 
given in the House of Lords have been in favour of the Bill for 
legalising marriage with a deceased wife's sister, but he is a constant 
visitor at the Houses of Parliament when anything of special interest 
is going on, and there is no doubt that he takes the keenest interest 
in the political questions of the day. 

The Danish people were extremely pleased at the marriage their 
Princess was making, and so determined were they that she should 
not go dowerless, that 100,000 kroner, known as "the People's 
Dowry," were presented to her, and countless presents, many of 
them of the humblest description, poured in upon her from all over 
the sea-girt kingdom. By the Princess's own wish, 3000 thalers 
were distributed among six Danish brides belonging to the poorer 
classes during the year of Her Royal Highness's marriage. The 
fact became known, and naturally greatly added to Her Royal 
Highness's popularity, and from the day she left Copenhagen to 
that on which she landed on British soil, the journey of Prince 
Christian and his family, for Princess Alexandra was accompanied 
by her father and mother, and brothers and sisters, was nothing 
short of a triumphal progress. 

The Royal cortege left Denmark on 26th February, reaching 
Cologne on 2nd March. There the Prince of Wales's fiancee 
received the first greetings of her future husband's people, the 
British residents. The whole party were also royally entertained 
at Brussels by the Court of Flanders ; and at Flushing they found a 
squadron of British men-of-war to escort the Royal yacht Victoria 
and Albert. 

On the morning of 7th March the Danish Royal Family first 
saw the white cliffs of Old England, and at twenty minutes past eleven, 
the Royal yacht, which had steamed slowly up the river amid craft 
splendidly decorated with flags and flowers, anchored opposite the 
pier at Gravesend, A moment later the Prince of Wales, accom- 
panied by a numerous suite, and attired in a blue frock-coat and 



THE PRINCE OF WALES'S MARRIAGE 49 

gray trousers, stepped on board. As His Royal Highness reached 
the deck Princess Alexandra advanced to the door of the State cabin 
to meet him, and, to the great delight of the assembled crowds 
ashore and afloat, the Prince, walking quickly towards his bride 
took her by the hand and kissed her most afl^ectionately. 




The PRrNCEss 

Fi-om a Photograph by May all in 1863 

Then followed the procession through London ; every street, 
from the humblest portions of the East End to the great West End 
thoroughfares, was lavishly decorated, and the Prince and Princess 
accepted addresses presented by the Corporation and many other 
London public bodies. 

The Princess of Wales gave some special sittings for a medal 



50 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

which was struck to commemorate her pubhc entry into the City of 
London, and it remains one of the finest examples of Wyon's art. 
The reverse represents the Princess Alexandra, led by the Prince of 
Wales, and attended by Hymen, being welcomed by the City of 
London, who is accompanied by Peace and Plenty, the latter carry- 
ing the diamond necklace and earrings which the City offered to 
the Princess as a wedding present. In the background is the 
triumphal arch erected by the Corporation at London Bridge, where 
Her Royal Highness first entered the City precincts. The medals 
were struck only in bronze, and were presented to the Queen, 
the Prince and Princess of Wales, all the members of the Royal 
family, the Royal and distinguished guests who were asked to the 
wedding, and the members of the Corporation of the City of 
London. 

The poor young Princess must have been glad when that long 
day came to an end, for the Royal train from Paddington to Windsor 
did not start till a quarter past five, and thus from early morning 
till late in the afternoon our future Queen had been compelled to 
remain the cynosure of all eyes. It is an interesting fact that the 
engine which took the Princess to Windsor was driven by the Earl 
of Caithness, then the best known amateur locomotive engineer of 

the day. 

As may easily be imagined, the Royal borough was determined 
not to be outdone by London in the matter of a bridal welcome. 
The Eton boys presented an address signed by the whole 800 ; and 
then came the arrival at the Castle, where the Queen, surrounded 
by all her children and a large number of Royal visitors, received 
her future daughter-in-law. Then followed two days of almost 
complete rest for the Princess. 

The Prince, in addition to the multifarious duties which beset 
even humble individuals when ihey are about to enter the holy 
estate, was also compelled to hold his first levee within a few days 
of his wedding. Over a thousand gentlemen had the honour of 
being presented to His Royal Highness, the presentations, by Her 
Majesty's pleasure, being considered as equal to presentations to the 
Queen. The levee, which was held in St. James's Palace, was also 
attended by about seventeen hundred of the nobility and gentry, all 




Ph 









52 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

anxious to do honour to the Heir-Apparent, who was, it need hardly 
be added, attended by a brilHant Court. 

The Prince of Wales and the British Royal Family had not been 
idle during the period of the engagement. His Royal Highness 
himself ordered and examined the designs for all the gifts about to 
be presented by him to his bride, and to her family whom he specially 
wished to honour. His first present to her, the engagement ring, 
has since served as keeper for the Princess's wedding ring. It is a 
very beautiful example of the jeweller's art, being set with six 
precious stones — a beryl, an emerald, a ruby, a turquoise, a jacinth, 
and a second emerald, the initials of the six gems spelling the 
Prince's family name, "Bertie." His Royal Highness's gifts also 
included a complete set of diamonds and pearls, comprising diadem, 
necklace, stomacher, and bracelet ; also a very beautiful waist-clasp, 
formed of two large turquoises inlaid with Arabic characters, and 
mounted in gold. 

Her Majesty presented her future daughter-in-law with a set of 
opals and diamonds exactly similar in form to that designed for 
Princess Alice by the Prince Consort. The Queen also gave the 
Prince of Wales a centre-piece, which was presented to him in the 
name of the Prince Consort and of herself. This fine piece of work 
had also been designed by the Prince Consort as a gift to his son. 
It has a group at the base showing Edward I. presenting his heir to 
the Welsh chieftains, and round the base are portraits of six Princes 
of Wales. Her Majesty, whose thoughtful care was shown in this 
as in many other matters, also gave the Prince of Wales and his 
bride a great deal of valuable plate. 

The London jewellers had certainly cause for rejoicing over the 
Royal marriage, for the Prince, not content with presenting his 
bride-elect with a number of other very costly gifts, also showered 
gems on all his own and her relations. Neither were his friends 
forgotten. He ordered twenty breast-pins, heart-shaped, encircled 
by brilliants, with the initials of himself and the Princess traced in 
rubies, diamonds, and emeralds occupying the centre of each heart. 
These were distributed to his brothers and to a number of his 
intimates. To his future mother-in-law. Princess Christian of 
Denmark, the Prince gave a beautiful bracelet, containing a miniature 



THE PRINCE OF WALES'S MARRIAGE ^^ 

of himself ; also a diamond, ruby, and emerald brooch, inscribed 
with the date of the marriage, and containing miniature portraits of 




-^^-==-j^^ 



A Contemporary Design for the Marriage 
OF THE Prince and Princess 



himself and the Princess. An exactly similar jewel was presented 
by Princess Alexandra to the Queen. 

In order efficiently to conduct the Royal wedding in St. George's 
Chapel at Windsor, it became necessary to build proper apartments 
for the accommodation of the bride and bridegroom on their arrival, 



54 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

and for the Lord Chamberlain to marshal the processions without 
any danger of a hitch. With this object the Board of Works built 
an immense Gothic hall, opening out of the west door of the Chapel, 
and surrounded by apartments appropriated to the use of the Royal 
. Family. Facing the Chapel, the two rooms upon the right were 
assigned to the bridegroom, and those on the left to the bride. 

The marriage of the Prince and Princess of Wales was the first 
Royal marriage which had been celebrated in St. George's Chapel 
since that of Henry L in 1122. The day was kept as a public 
holiday throughout the country, and the attention of the whole 
kingdom was concentrated on Windsor. The ceremony took place 
on loth March 1863, ^t 12 o'clock. The total number of persons 
admitted to the chapel did not exceed 900 ladies and gentlemen, 
exclusive of the Guards and of the attendants on duty. 

The scene will never be forgotten by those who had the privilege 
of being present. It was an extraordinarily magnificent pageant, 
heralds and trumpeters in coats of cloth of gold adding greatly to the 
brilliancy and pomp. No touch of mourning was allowed to mar 
the brightness of the occasion. 

The Queen surveyed the scene from the Royal closet, which, 
placed on the north side of the Communion Table, is really a small 
room in the body of the Castle with a window opening into the 
Chapel. Her Majesty was clad in deep black, even to her gloves, 
and she wore a close-fitting widow's cap, but in deference to the 
occasion she had consented to put on the broad blue ribbon of the 
Order of the Garter with the glittering star, and this was specially 
noticed by the few persons who, from the body of the Chapel, 
caught a glimpse of their beloved Sovereign. 

The bridegroom, as in duty bound, arrived some time before the 
bride. He was supported by his uncle, the Duke of Saxe-Coburg, 
and his brother-in-law, the Crown Prince of Prussia, and wore the 
uniform of a British General, the Collar of the Garter, the Order of 
the Star of India, and the rich flowing purple velvet mantle of a 
Knight of the Garter. His supporters also wore the robes of the 
Garter, and the three were naturally the observed of all observers 
till the arrival of the bride, who came in upon the stroke of half- 
past twelve. 



THE PRINCE OF WALES'S MARRIAGE SS 

Princess Alexandra, who was given away by her father, wore, 
according to the notions of that day, a very beautiful and splendid 
wedding dress. It consisted of a white satin skirt, trimmed with 
garlands of orange blossom and puffings of tulle and Honiton lace, 
the bodice being draped with the same lace, while the train of silver 
moire antique was covered with nosegays of orange blossom and 
puffings of tulle. In addition to the necklace, earrings, and brooch 
presented to Her Royal Highness by the bridegroom, she wore the 
riviere of diamonds given by the Corporation of London, and three 
bracelets, presented to her respectively by the Queen, the ladies of 
Leeds, and the ladies of Manchester. On her beautiful hair, which 
was very simply dressed, lay a wreath of orange blossoms covered 
by a veil of Honiton lace. 

The bridal bouquet was composed of orange blossoms, white 
rosebuds, orchids, and sprigs of myrtle, the latter being taken from 
the same bush as that from which the myrtle used in the Princess 
Royal's bridal bouquet was cut. 

As the Princess moved slowly up the Chapel her train was 
carried by eight bridesmaids, Lady Victoria Scott, Lady Victoria 
Howard, Lady Agneta Yorke, Lady Feodora Wellesley, Lady 
Diana Beauclerk, Lady Georgina Hamilton, Lady Alma Bruce, and 
Lady Helena Hare. They each wore dresses of white tulle over 
white glace silk, trimmed with blush roses, shamrocks, and white 
heather, with wreaths to correspond, and each also wore a locket 
presented to her by the Prince of Wales, composed of coral and 
diamonds, signifying the red and white which are the colours of 
Denmark, while in the centre of each was a crystal cipher forming 
the letters "A. E. A." twined together in a monogram designed by 
Princess Alice. 

It is an interesting fact that all these ladies are still living, and 
many of them have since become the Princess's personal friends. 
Even now she occasionally wears the splendid diamond and 
enamelled bracelet, made in eight compartments, each containing a 
miniature of one of the Royal bridesmaids, which was their gift to 
her on the occasion of the marriage. 

The ceremony itself did not last very long. The Prince is 
recorded to have answered his "I will " right manfully, but the 



S6 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

Princess's answers were almost inaudible. As soon as the Prince of 
Wales and the Princess Alexandra were man and wife, they turned 
to the congregation hand in hand, bowing low to the Queen, who, 
in returning the salutation, made a gesture of blessing rather than 
of ceremonious acknowledgment. 

Dr. Norman Macleod wrote : " I returned home and went back 
to the marriage on the loth of March. ... I got behind Kingsley, 
Stanley, Birch, and in a famous place, being in front of the Royal 
pair. We saw better than any except the clergy. It was a gorgeous 
sight, yet somehow did not excite me. I suppose I am past this. 

" Two things struck me much. One was the whole of the Royal 
Princesses weeping, though concealing their tears with their bouquets, 
as they saw their brother, who was to them but their ' Bertie,' and 
their dead father's son, standing alone waiting for his bride. The 
other was the Queen's expression as she raised her eyes to Heaven, 
while her husband's Chorale was sung. She seemed to be with him 
alone before the throne of God." 

Mr, W. P. Frith, who had been commissioned to execute a 
painting of the Royal marriage for the Queen, was accommodated 
with a special corner for himself and his sketch-book, and later, all 
those who had taken part in the historic pageant sat to him for 
portraits with the most excellent result. 

On their return to the Castle a few moments later the bride and 
bridegroom were met by the Queen and conducted to the Green 
Drawing-Room, where the formal attestation of the marriage took 
place. 

It may be added that among those present at the marriage and 
afterwards at the wedding breakfast were the Rev. H. M. Birch and 
the Rev. C. F. Tarver, the Prince's tutors, and when lunch was over 
these gentlemen were informed -that their old pupil sent them a 
souvenir of himself, of which he desired their acceptance. This 
souvenir proved to be in each case a copy of the Holy Scriptures, 
handsomely bound, and containing an inscription in His Royal 
Highness's own handwriting. 

The wedding breakfast, which was served in St. George's Hall, 
was very sumptuous, but out of respect to the Queen's recent 
bereavement there were very few speeches — a circumstance which 



THE PRINCE OF WALES'S MARRIAGE 



57 



probably did not greatly disappoint either the bride or the bride- 
groom. While the marriage was actually in progress the King 'of 




On the Wedding Day 

From a Photograph by Mayall 



Denmark was entertaining both the rich and poor in his kingdom right 
royally, and it must have been a pleasant thought for the Princess to 



58 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

know that her marriage was filling with gladness innumerable 
multitudes both of her own people and of her husband's future 
subjects. 

At four o'clock the Prince and Princess of Wales took their 
departure for Osborne, where a very short honeymoon was spent. 
On their return home, which in this case meant Windsor, it was 
noticed that the lovely bride looked the very picture of happiness. 
The streets of Windsor were decorated with flags, and the Royal 
borough looked as gay as it did on the wedding day. 

After the marriage of the Prince of Wales the Liturgy of the 
Church of England was officially altered by the introduction of the 
name of the Princess of Wales into the Prayer for the Royal Family. 
The Scottish Church was also officially instructed to pray for " Her 
Most Sacred Majesty Queen Victoria, Albert Edward Prince of 
Wales, the Princess of Wales, and all the Royal Family." 



CHAPTER V 



EARLY MARRIED LIFE 



Among the very first visitors entertained at Sandringham by the 
Royal bride and bridegroom was Dr. Stanley, who spent Easter 
Sunday with them there. 

" On the evening of Easter Eve," he writes, "the Princess came 
to me in a corner of the drawing-room with her Prayer Book, and 
I went through the Communion Service with her, explaining the 
peculiarities and the likenesses and differences to and from the 
Danish Service. She was most simple and fascinating. . . . My 
visit to Sandringham gave me intense pleasure. I was there for 
three days, I read the whole Service, preached, then gave the first 
English Sacrament to this ' angel in the Palace.' I saw a great deal 
of her, and can truly say that she is as charming and beautiful a 
creature as ever passed through a fairy tale." 

One of the first public appearances made by the Prince of Wales 
after his marriage was at the Royal Academy dinner, where he made 
an excellent short speech, greatly impressing those who were present 
by his modesty and good sense. William Makepeace Thackeray 
was among the speakers on this occasion, which was very shortly 
before the famous novelist's lamented death. At the anniversary of 
the Royal Literary Fund some months later the Prince made some 
graceful and appropriate allusions to the great writer whom the 
Empire had lost. He spoke with evident feeling of the fact that 
Thackeray had been the life of the Fund, always ready to open his 
purse for the relief of literary men struggling with pecuniary 
difficulties. 

This spring was a very busy time for both their Royal Highnesses. 



6o THE PRINCE OF WALES 

On 8th June the Prince and Princess were sumptuously entertained 
by the Lord Mayor at the Guildhall, when the Prince of Wales 
took up the freedom of the City, to which he was entitled by 
patrimony. The entertainments included a great ball, which the 
Princess of Wales opened, dancing a quadrille with the Lord Mayor, 
while the Prince had the Lady Mayoress for his partner. 

A week later the Royal couple attended " Com mem." at Oxford. 
They received a splendid welcome both from the University authori- 
ties and the undergraduates. The honorary degree of Doctor of 
Civil Law was conferred on the Prince in the Sheldonian Theatre, 
where the wildest uproar prevailed, till amid a sudden lull of 
perfect silence the Princess entered with Dr. Liddell, then Dean 
of Christ Church. Scarcely had she traversed half the distance 
to her seat when a cheer loud and deep arose, and seemed to shake 
the theatre to its foundation, to the evident satisfaction of the 
Prince. 

After the ceremony was over their Royal Highnesses escaped 
from all their friends and entertainers and took the opportunity of 
going over what had been the Prince's rooms as an undergraduate. 
That same evening a ball was given in the Prince's honour in the 
Corn Exchange by the Apollo Lodge of Freemasons. 

Shortly after their visit to Oxford the Prince and Princess 
celebrated their house-warming at Marlborough House by an evening 
party and a ball. During the summer months the Prince and 
Princess spent some time at Sandringham in the original house, 
which at that time stood in an isolated park, and which has now 
been replaced by the present very much larger and more comfortable 
mansion. There can be no doubt that the Princess's strong affection 
for her country home is based on the tender recollections of her 
early married life. It is a significant fact that when the new Sand- 
ringham House was built Her Royal Highness begged that her 
boudoir in the new mansion might be arranged so as to be an exact 
reproduction of her boudoir in the old house. 

The only public function at which the Prince of Wales was 
present during 1863 occurred in August, when he visited Halifax 
and opened a new town hall there. 

Much satisfaction was felt when the news became known that 



EARLY MARRIED LIFE 6i 

the Queen hoped to welcome the first of her British grandchildren in 
the month of March. One Friday evening, early in January, shortly 




.-^' 




The Princess in 1863 

From the Painting by Lauchert, published by Colnaghi 




after the Princess, who was staying, had been skating on Virginia 
Water, near Windsor, her eldest child appeared so unexpectedly 
that for a while the Royal baby had to be wrapped in cotton wool, 



62 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

for all the beautiful layette which was in course ot preparation 
was at Marlborough House. 

The rejoicings over the event, both in this country and in 
Denmark, were naturally very great, more especially when it became 
known that the Royal infant was none the worse for his early arrival. 
Among the two Royal families most immediately concerned the 
interest and excitement was intense. Princess Alice wrote to the 
Queen on 9th January 1894, "I was aghast on receiving Bertie's 
telegram this morning announcing the birth of their little son." But 
this feeling of trepidation quickly gave place to one of relief when 
the bulletins announced the steady progress of both mother and babe, 
and soon the British public saw many charming photographs and 
portraits of the Princess of Wales in her new role of mother. 
At the time of the birth of the Duke of Clarence the Princess was 
not yet twenty, but, like the Queen, she seems to have been wholly 
absorbed in her maternal duties, and at any moment she would 
joyfully give up attending a State function or ball in order to spend 
an hour in her nursery. 

It need hardly be said that the first portion of the Prince and 
Princess of Wales's married life was overshadowed by the war bet-ween 
Denmark and Prussia. The young Princess was naturally strongly 
patriotic in her sympathies. At breakfast one morning a foolish 
equerry read out a telegram which announced a success of the Austro- 
Prussian forces, whereupon Her Royal Highness burst into tears, and 
the Prince, it is said, thoroughly lost his temper for once, and rated 
his equerry as soundly as his ancestor, Henry VIII., might have done. 
An amusing story went the round of the clubs about this time. 
It was said that a Royal visitor at Windsor asked Princess Beatrice 
what she would like for a present. The child stood in doubt, and 
begged the Princess of Wales to advise her. The result of a whispered 
conversation between the two was that the little Princess declared 
aloud that she would like to have Bismarck's head on a charger! 

In July 1864 the Prince laid the foundation-stone of the new 
West Wing of the London Hospital. He was accompanied by the 
Princess. This was one of the first occasions on which he showed 
his great interest in hospital management. The fact that there was 
a separate ward for the Jews aroused his keen interest. In the same 




The Princess in 1864 

From the Painthig by Lauchert, published by Henry Graves and Co. 



64 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

month the Prince and Princess went to the Fourth of June at Eton, 
and also stayed at Goodwood for the races. In the middle of August 
they went to the Highlands, visiting Stirling Castle on the way. 
They spent some weeks at Abergeldie, entertaining a great deal. 
Dr. Norman Macleod stayed with them there. It was during this 
stay in Scotland that the Prince and Princess of Wales first became 
intimate with the family of their future son-in-law, and the Countess 
of Fife, his mother, gave a great picnic in their honour. 

That autumn they went from Dundee to Denmark, being accom- 
panied by their baby, now nearly a year old. This was the Prince's 
first visit to his wife's home. They received a most enthusiastic 
welcome, and were splendidly entertained. At Bernsdorf, where the 
Royal party spent several days, a number of shooting parties were 
organised in honour of His Royal Highness, who, certainly for the 
first time in his life, was invited to shoot foxes. He bagged two, 
and some of the teeth of the animals were set as breast-pins for him. 

From Elsinore the Prince and Princess went in their yacht to 
Stockholm in order to pay a visit to the King and Queen of Sweden. 
In Sweden also the Prince was invited to take part in several hunting 
expeditions. One odd bag resulted in ten foxes, six hares, and 
seventeen stags. 

After sending Prince Albert Victor home with Countess de Grey, 
the Royal couple travelled back via Germany and Belgium, visiting 
on the way Prince and Princess Louis of Hesse, at Darmstadt ; and 
making a short stay at Brussels. Then they came home for the 
rest of the autumn to Sandringham, where the Princess spent her 
twentieth birthday. 

The year 1865 proved an eventful one both to the Prince and 
the Princess. The Prince paid his first State visit to Ireland, open- 
ing the International Exhibition of Dublin on 9th May, and a little 
less than a month later Prince George of Wales was born at Marl- 
borough House. 

Although, however, there have at various times been more or 
less serious fires in the Royal palaces, Sandringham, for instance, 
having been almost destroyed by a conflagration within the last few 
years. His Royal Highness has only once been really in a fire, and 
this was just a month after his second son's birth. The fire began 



EARLY MARRIED LIFE 



65 



in the floor then styled the nursery floor, and after the Princess of 
Wales had been moved to another part of the house with her two 




The Princess with the Baby Prince Albert Victor 

Photograph in 1864 ^_y Vernon Heath, published by McS^een 

children, the Prince set to work with the utmost energy to check 
the flames. It need hardly be said that very soon the whole of 

F 



66 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

London seemed to be congregated in Pall Mall and St. James's 
Park. At first it could not be made out where the fire was coming 
from, and the Prince helped to rip up the whole of the nursery 
floor before the mischief could be traced, and while doing so he 
nearly had a bad accident, for he fell some distance through the 
rafters. 

At last, however, the fire was got under and it was found that 
comparatively little harm had been done. Then for the first time it 
occurred to some one to ask if Marlborough House was insured. 
Strangely enough this very important precaution had not been taken. 
Now, however, both the Prince's town and country houses are 
insured to their full value. 

The Prince of Wales from childhood has always shown the 
keenest interest in firemen and fires. During many years of his 
life he used to be informed whenever a really big blaze was signalled, 
and he has attended incognito most of the great London fires during 
the last thirty years. 

About this time the Prince of Wales visited the gigantic steam- 
ship Great Eastern, off Sheerness, in order to see the Atlantic 
telegraph cable, which had just been completed. His Royal Highness 
was received by a number of prominent engineers, and while he was 
present the last section of the cable was being wound into the tanks 
on board the Great Eastern from the vessel alongside which had 
brought it from the works at Greenwich. A message was sent 
through one of the coils, the length of which was equivalent to the 
distance from Sheerness to Valentia. The signals transmitted, " God 
Save the Queen," were received at the other end of the coil in the 
course of a few seconds, a fact which, commonplace as it may now 
seem, struck the onlookers in the year 1865 ^'^^^ amazement. The 
Prince visited every portion of the huge ship, and accepted specimen 
pieces of portions of the cable in various stages of manufacture. 

In that same year, that is two years after her marriage, the Princess 
of Wales performed her first public act by opening the Cambridge 
School of Art. It was in 1865 also that the Prince attended his 
first public dinner as President of the Royal Literary Fund, and it 
was on this occasion that His Royal Highness toasted the ladies in 
these graceful words : — " In the presence of a society accustomed 



EARLY MARRIED LIFE 



67 



to cultivating with such success the flowers of literature, it would 
be unpardonable to forget the flowers of society." 




The Prince, the Princess, and Prince Albert Victor 

Photograph in 1864 by Vernon Heathy published by McS^ueen 

During that summer the Prince and Princess of Wales visited 
Cornwall, and went down the Botallack tin mine, near St. Just, the 



68 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

depth of which is about 200 fathoms. The bottom level of the mine 
extends horizontally about half a mile beneath the sea. A part of 
this mine belongs to His Royal Highness as Duke of Cornwall. 
During the same tour the Prince visited Land's End. The day was 
exceptionally clear and fine, and His Royal Highness lingered for 
some time among the grim rocks which form the westernmost point 
of England. 

All this time the Queen was living in the strictest retirement, 
and the great shadow of the Prince Consort's death had thrown 
scarcely less gloom over the life of his eldest son. The Prince 
of Wales mourned deeply for his father, and it is significant that 
he never lost an opportunity of testifying in his public speeches 
to the high purpose and noble aims which had distinguished 
Prince Albert's life. To the cost of the mausoleum at Frogmore the 
Prince of Wales contributed from his private purse no less a sum 
than _^ 1 0,000. At the end of 1865 the Prince sustained another 
severe blow in the death of Lord Palmerston, whom he had 
honoured with his special friendship and whom he had been 
accustomed to consult in his private affairs. 

Not till February 1866 did the Queen consent to open Parliament 
again in person. She was accompanied by the Prince of Wales and 
two of her daughters, the Princess of Wales being accommodated 
with a seat on the Woolsack facing the Throne. 

It was in this year, when the Austro-German war was going on, that 
the Prince established special telegraphic communication between 
Marlborough House and the seat of war. Like the Queen, he is 
a shrewd observer of foreign politics, and when he is called upon to 
reign, will probably be the best unofficial Foreign Minister in the 
country. His Royal Highness has since kept up in every important 
war the practice of securing the earliest possible telegraphic informa- 
tion, notably in the Franco-Prussian, the Russo-Turkish, and the 
Greco-Turkish wars. 

In the summer of 1866 the Prince of Wales laid the foundation- 
stone of the new building of the British and Foreign Bible Society. 
The Earl of Shaftesbury, President of the Society, the Lord Mayor, 
the Archbishop of York, and the Bishop of Winchester received the 
Prince. 



EARLY MARRIED LIFE 



In his speech His Royal Highness recalled the fact that only 
sixty-three years previously Mr, Wilberforce had met with a few 
friends in a small room in a dingy counting-house and had established 
the Bible Society, while at the time that he, the Prince, was speaking, 
the Society had already spent six millions of money in the furtherance 
of its objects, and that it had contributed to the translation of the 
Bible into two hundred and eighty different languages and dialects. 
The Prince further said : 

" I have an hereditary claim to be here on this occasion. My 
grandfather, the Duke of Kent, warmly 
advocated the claims of the Society, 
and it is gratifying to me to reflect 
that the two modern versions of the 
Scriptures more widely circulated than 
any others — the German and English 
— were both in their origin connected 
with my family. The translation of 
Martin Luther was executed under the 
protection of the Elector of Saxony, 
the collateral ancestor of my lamented 
father ; whilst that of William Tyn- 
dale — the foundation of the present 
Authorised English Version — was in- 
troduced with the sanction of the 
Royal predecessor of my mother, the 
Queen who first desired that ' the Bible 
shall have free course through all 
Christendom, but especially in^my own realm.' It is my hope and 
trust that, under the Divine guidance, the wider diflrision and a 
deeper study of the Scriptures will, in this as in every age, be at 
once the surest guarantee of the progress and liberty of mind, and 
the means of multiplying in the present form the consolations of 
our holy religion." 

In the autumn following, the Prince and Princess, accompanied 
by their two sons, visited the Duke and Duchess of Sutherland at 
Dunrobin. At that time the most northern point of railway 
communication was at Ardgay, and thence the Prince and Princess 





^^PT^ 


^r ^mH 


W^^ 




^KWt'jH 




Hk^/mH 




^^^^H^^^ln^v 







The Oueen with Prince 
Albert Victor 

Photograph by Hughes and MuUins, Ryde 



70 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

had to drive a distance of twenty-five miles before they could reach 
Dunrobin Castle. All along the route they received a most 
enthusiastic welcome. They arrived at night at the Castle and were 
received in Royal Highland style. Among those asked to meet 
them were the Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince of Saxe-Weimar, and 
many members of the leading Scotch nobility. The Prince of Wales 
reviewed the Sutherland Volunteers in the grounds of the Castle, and 
later, on the same day, the Duke of Sutherland announced that it 
was the Prince's wish that the whole of the corps should adopt the 
kilt as their uniform, His Royal Highness having a preference for 
the national costume. 

Shortly after their return from Scotland the Prince and Princess 
of Wales had the pleasure of entertaining the Queen of Denmark and 
her two younger children, and they spent some time at Sandringham 
with the Princess of Wales, while the Prince went to Russia in order 
to be present at the marriage of his sister-in-law. Princess Dagmar, 
to the then Cesarewitch. It was quite late in the year and it was 
considered that the cold in St. Petersburg would be too severe for the 
Princess to accompany her husband. The Prince, who attended the 
Imperial marriage in his official capacity, was accompanied by a 
considerable suite, including Lord Frederick Paulet, Viscount 
Hamilton, the Marquis of Blandford, and Major Teesdale. On His 
Royal Highness's arrival at St. Petersburg he was met at the railway 
terminus by the Emperor of Russia, the Cesarewitch, and the Grand 
Dukes ; and he was given splendid quarters at the Hermitage Palace. 

The Prince of Wales has always been known to have a great 
liking for Russia and the Russian people, and he is himself very 
popular in St. Petersburg. After the Imperial marriage he visited 
Moscow, being accompanied by the Crown Prince of Denmark, 
The Princes went over the Kremlin ; and the Prince of Wales paid 
a call on the Metropolitan Archbishop, the highest dignitary of the 
Russian Church. The aged ecclesiastic received His Royal Highness 
in a perfectly plain cell. They conversed for a quarter of an hour, 
and as the Prince was leaving, the Metropolitan gave him his 
blessing, and with the assistance of his monks accompanied his 
Royal visitor to the door. 



CHAPTER VI 

ILLNESS OF THE PRINCESS ROYAL VISIT TO IRELAND 

CONTINENTAL AND EASTERN TOUR 

The year 1 867 was, if not very eventful, an anxious one for the Prince 
and Princess of Wales, for both before and after the birth of their 
third child, now the Duchess of Fife, on 20th February, the Princess 
suffered from acute rheumatism and inflammation of a knee-joint. 
Her illness caused so much anxiety at the Danish Court that her 
father and mother came over and spent some time in London. The 
Prince was most devoted in his attentions to the invalid, and actually 
had his bureau moved into her sick-room in order that he might 
not be separated from her in her convalescence even by the imperious 
demands of his enormous correspondence. Happily Her Royal 
Highness grew quite strong again, but the serious nature of 
her illness may be judged from the fact that she was not able 
to drive out until 9th July. Naturally for the rest of that year the 
Prince and Princess lived very quietly and went about as little as 
possible. 

Five years after their marriage the Prince and Princess of Wales 
paid a visit to Ireland, and their reception was marked by a very 
genuine demonstration of cordiality and even of enthusiasm. On 
arriving in Kingstown Harbour Her Royal Highness was presented, 
as the Queen had been in 1849, with a white dove, emblematic of 
the affection and goodwill which she was supposed to be bringing 
to the distressful country. The Prince, with his usual tact, declared 
it to be his wish that no troops should be present in the streets of 
Dublin. Entire reliance was accordingly placed on the loyalty and 
hospitable spirit of the people, and, in spite of many doleful pro- 



72 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

gnostications to the contrary, the Royal visit was successful from 
every point of view. 

It has often been asserted that the Prince of Wales is fonder of 
the Emerald Isle than is any other member of his family ; he 
certainly numbers several Irishmen among his closest friends. 
Although His Royal Highness thoroughly enjoyed his visit, this 
one week in 1868 was one of the most tiring ever spent by the 
Prince. Like his younger son, the Duke of York, twenty-nine 
years later, the Prince was installed with great pomp as a Knight of 
the Order of St. Patrick, on which occasion he used the sword worn 
by George IV. The Prince also unveiled with much ceremony a 
statue of Edmund Burke. The Times described the exertions 
which the Prince went through in the following passage : — 

" There were presentations and receptions, and receiving and 
answering addresses, processions, walking, riding and driving, in 
morning and evening, military, academic, and medieval attire. The 
Prince had to breakfast, lunch, dine, and sup, with more or less 
publicity, every twenty-four hours. He had to go twice to races, 
with fifty or a hundred thousand people about him ; to review a 
small army and make a tour in the Wicklow mountains, of course 
everywhere receiving addresses under canopies and dining in state 
under galleries full of spectators. He visited and inspected institu- 
tions, colleges, universities, academies, libraries, and cattle shows. 
He had to take a very active part in assemblies of from several 
hundred to several thousand dancers, and always to select for his 
partners the most important personages, . . . He had to listen to 
many speeches sufficiently to know when and what to answer. He 
had to examine with respectful interest, pictures, books, antiquities, 
relics, manuscripts, specimens, bones, fossils, prize beasts, and works 
of Irish art. He had never to be unequal to the occasion, however 
different from the last, or however like the last, and whatever his 
disadvantage as to the novelty or dulness of the matter and the 
scene." 

Some amusing incidents happened. A loyal Irish girl, deter- 
mined to have a good look at her future King and Queen, defied 
all rails and barriers, and, mounted on horseback, dashed through 
the crowd of sightseers and galloped past the Prince and Princess, 



\ 



ROYAL VISIT TO IRELAND 73 

exclaiming, "Oh, thank you all, I have seen them and shall go home 
happy now." The Prince, with a smile, raised his hat, which was cer- 
tainly the most sensible thing he could have done in the circumstances. 




The Prince at the Age of Twenty-Three 
From a Painting by Weigall, published by Henry Gra'ves and Co. 

His Royal Highness has always shown great interest in Ireland 
and Irish matters, so much so that it has been more than once 
whispered that he is a Home Ruler. He gave his warm support 
and help to a fund for the relief of distress in Ireland, and more 
recently, during the annual show of the Royal Agricultural Society, 



74 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

he took the opportunity to receive and entertain at Sandringham no 
fewer than three hundred and fifty Irish tenant-farmers. 

On their way back from Dublin the Prince and Princess visited 
North Wales, and on landing at Holyhead they passed along the 
pier through a double line of aged Welshwomen, who were all wear- 
ing the tall hat and national dress of the Principality. At Carnarvon 
the Prince inaugurated some new waterworks, and after this ceremony 
the Royal party proceeded to the famous castle, where they were 
presented with an address from the Council of the National 
Eisteddfod. The Prince replied in a neat little speech, in which he 
observed that he and the Princess received the address with peculiar 
satisfaction on the anniversary of the birth, on 25th April 1284, 
and in the very birthplace, of the first Prince of Wales, " Edward 
of Carnarvon," the son of Edward I. 

Their Royal Highnesses' fourth child, the Princess Victoria, was 
born on 6th July, and after a quiet summer spent at Sandringham 
the Prince and Princess of Wales, attended by a small suite, left 
Marlborough House in November for a long Continental tour, which 
extended over some months and enabled them to renew old ties and 
make new friendships. They spent a few days in Paris, and paid a 
visit to the Emperor and Empress of the French at Compiegne, 
where, during a stag hunt organised in honour of His Royal Highness, 
an accident happened which might easily have cost the Prince of Wales 
his life. As he was galloping along one of the grassy drives of the 
forest, a stag rushed from one of the cross-paths and knocked him 
and his horse completely over. Fortunately he was not hurt, though 
much bruised and shaken. Without alarming those about him, he 
again mounted and went on hunting to the end of the day. At this 
house-party the Prince and Princess had as fellow-guests Marshal 
Bazaine, Count von Moltke, and a number of other notable people 
destined to make history. 

The Princess's birthday, ist December, was spent in Denmark. 
After a short stay there their Royal Highnesses went to Berlin, 
where a large family party was assembled to meet them, and on i8th 
January, which is, curiously enough, one of the only two days of 
the year in which it can be held, a Chapter of the Order of the Black 
Eagle was convened, and the Prince of Wales was formally invested 



CONTINENTAL AND EASTERN TOUR 



75 



with the Collar of this the highest order in Germany by the King, to 
whom he was introduced by his brother-in-law, the Crown Prince, 
and by Prince Albert of Prussia, 

Then followed an interesting sojourn in Vienna. The Royal 
party were splendidly entertained by the Emperor and Empress, a 
suite of apartments in the Burg 
having been specially prepared 
for them. 

Five days later the Prince 
and Princess proceeded to 
Trieste, where they were joined 
by Prince Louis of Battenberg, 
the Duke of Sutherland, Dr. 
(now Sir) W. H. Russell, and 
other friends, together with 
their suite. Their Royal High- 
nesses embarked on board 
H.M.S. Ariadne^ and reached 
Alexandria on 3rd February 
1849. They were met by 
the usual loyal greetings, ad- 
dresses, and bouquets presented 
by the British residents. 

Their Royal Highnesses 
went on to Cairo, where they 
were received by the Viceroy 
of Egypt and his Ministers, and before starting on their journey 
up the Nile the Prince and Princess took the opportunity of 
witnessing the curious and interesting Procession of the Holy 
Carpet starting from Cairo on its way to Mecca, which, strangely 
enough, few of the Europeans who at that time visited Cairo 
cared to see. Every year there are sent two carpets, one of 
which goes to Medina to serve as a covering for the tomb of the 
Prophet, and the other to Mecca to be a covering for Kaabah 
or the central point of the Mahomedan religion. The Prince and 
Princess also witnessed the departure of the pilgrims for Mecca, 
or rather of that portion of the pilgrimage consisting of sheikhs 




The Oueen, the Princess of Wales, 
AND Princess Helena 

Photograph by Hughes and MuHins, Ryde 



76 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

and holy men, escorted by irregular cavalry and artillery, which left 
the city to join the other pilgrims encamped on the plain outside. 

From Cairo the Prince and Princess began their eventful voyage 
up the Nile. The Viceroy had taken the greatest pains to provide 
dahabeahs worthy of those whom he desired to honour. The chief 
barge was occupied by the Prince and Princess and Mrs. Grey, who 
was in attendance on Her Royal Highness. It was named the 
Alexandra^ in compliment to the Princess, and was towed by a 
steamer flying the Royal Standard and the Ottoman flag side by 
side, and there was also a kitchen dahabeah attached to it. The 
suite lived on board another steamer, on which the Royal party 
daily assembled for breakfast and dinner. On another vessel were 
the quarters of Murad Pasha and several members of the Duke of 
Sutherland's party. The store-boat had been very amply equipped 
with provisions. There were 3000 bottles of champagne, 20,000 
bottles of soda-water, 4000 bottles of claret, and plenty of ale, 
liqueurs, and light wines. 

His Royal Highness looked forward to having plenty of sport 
during the voyage. Accordingly he had taken a large variety of 
guns of almost every calibre in use, as well as a wherry to be used 
for approaching land game. For the purpose of capturing crocodiles 
nets were brought which had been specially made under the super- 
intendence of Sir Samuel Baker. The Prince had also specially 
arranged for the inclusion in his party of a clever naturalist and 
taxidermist. 

Both the Prince and Princess greatly enjoyed this novel form of 
yachting, although, unfortunately, bad weather soon set in, and the 
Royal barge was frequently enveloped in clouds of dust and sand. 
Notwithstanding this, however, the Prince had plenty of good sport 
and bagged some very large birds, though the crocodiles were, on 
the whole, conspicuous by their absence. Soon the Prince's taxi- 
dermist could show some very fine specimens of spoonbills, flamingoes, 
herons, cranes, cormorants, and doves. 

During their slow progress up the river the Royal party took 
frequent excursions, including one to Karnak. On this occasion the 
Princess rode a milk-white ass, caparisoned in crimson velvet and 
gold ; while the Prince was mounted on a gray mule. It was 



CONTINENTAL AND EASTERN TOUR 



77 



noticed that the Princess entered with the greatest zest into the 
exploration and sight-seeing, and there is no doubt that this voyage 
aided greatly her restoration to health. 

Her Royal Highness, however, had one very serious adventure. 
One night the Prince of Wales, who was on board the steamer, 
observed a light reflected on the side of the Alexandra. He at 
once gave an alarm, the Princess and Mrs. Grey, who were in the 
dahabeah, were hurried off to the shore, and the fire, which had been 
caused by a lighted candle in Prince Louis of Battenberg's cabin, was 
put out by the Prince and his suite. Had not the quick eye of His 
Royal Highness discovered the danger a terrible tragedy might have 
taken place, for the boats were wooden and scorched by an Egyptian 
sun, while there were, of course, a considerable number of cartridges 
on board. 

The Arabs showed the friendliest feeling to the Prince and 
Princess. A little Nubian monkey was presented to Her Royal 
Highness, and the fortunate donor received in exchange an English 
double-barrelled fowling-piece and some " backsheesh." 

Unfortunately the Royal party were to a certain extent worried 
by inquisitive tourists, who were naturally very anxious to catch a 
glimpse of them. As usual, the Prince made a point of visiting 
all specially British institutions, including a mission school. 

On their return to Cairo the Prince and Princess attended some 
native races given by the Viceroy in their honour, and also a 
theatrical performance. 

Then came one of the most interesting episodes of their Royal 
Highnesses' tour, namely, their visit to the Suez Canal, where they 
were received and escorted by M. de Lesseps. The works of the 
Canal Company were by no means completed, but they were being 
actively carried forward ; a large dock, 450 feet long, having been 
already finished. At Tussum the Prince performed the important 
ceremony of opening the sluices of the dam across the finished 
portion of the canal, thus letting the waters of the Mediterranean 
into the empty basin of the Bitter Lakes. After having seen this 
interesting sight, the Royal party proceeded by the canal via Lake 
Timsah to Ismailia, even then a great and Frenchified city. 

At the end of March the Prince and Princess, accompanied by 



78 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

their suite, returned to Alexandria and once more embarked on the 
Ariadne^ after bidding a very cordial farewell to their Egyptian 
entertainers. 

The Ariadne first sighted the minarets and mosques of Constanti- 
nople on the morning of ist April, The Prince and his suite came 
up on deck attired in full uniform, and the Royal party, including 
the Princess, made their actual arrival at Constantinople in a new 
yacht of the Sultan's called the Pert if Piali. Their Royal High- 
nesses were met on the steps of the Palace by the Sultan, the Grand 
Vizier acting as interpreter, while the Commander of the Faithful led 
his British guests up the grand staircase and himself showed them the 
rooms prepared for them in the Salih Bazaar Palace on the north side 
of the Bosphorus. Every European luxury had been provided. The 
lattice work, which is always put up across the windows in Turkish 
houses in order to screen the fair inmates from the rude gaze of out- 
siders, had been removed and replaced with magnificent silk hangings. 
All the servants appointed to wait on the Prince and Princess of 
Wales were Greek and European, except the coachmen, who were 
French. 

Then followed days which must have recalled to the Royal visitors 
some of the stories in the Arabian Nights. The meals at the 
Salih Bazaar Palace were all served on gold and silver plate studded 
with gems ; a band of eighty-four musicians played during dinner ; 
every morning arrived gorgeous presents from the Sultan, including 
exquisite flowers and trays laden with fruits and sweets ; while, at a 
clap of the hand, black-coated chibouquejees brought in pipes with 
amber mouth-pieces of fabulous value, encrusted in diamonds and 
rubies. There was a complete Turkish bath establishment in the 
Palace ; and the slightest wish expressed by the Prince of Wales was 
considered an order. 

The Prince and Princess witnessed the passing in State of the 
Sultan, as Commander of the Faithful, to the Mosque Bashiktash 
amid an unusual display of pomp and ceremony ; and while the 
pageant was passing, little Prince Izzedin, the Heir-Apparent, 
visited their Royal Highnesses. 

The great event of their visit was a State dinner given by the 
Sultan to the Prince and Princess at the Dolma Baghtche Palace. 



CONTINENTAL AND EASTERN TOUR 79 

This was the first banquet ever given by a Sultan of Turkey 
to Christians. It was also remarkable as being the first occasion on 
which any Minister except a Grand Vizier had ever sat down in 
a Sultan's presence. The whole Diplomatic Corps were also invited. 
The table was laid fiDr twenty-four, and the menu was composed 
of Turkish and French dishes. 

On the Sunday of their stay at Constantinople the Royal party 
attended divine service at the Church of the British Embassy, 
and shortly after were rowed across the Bosphorus to visit the 
cemetery at Scutari. On the following day the Prince and Princess 
spent a most amusing couple of hours visiting the native quarter of 
Stambul incognito as " Mr. and Mrs. Williams." They walked 
through the bazaar and made some purchases, and their identity was 
never suspected for one moment. 

As a very exceptional favour, the Sultan conducted the Princess 
and Mrs. Grey to his harem. They stayed there an hour and a half, 
and Her Royal Highness had several interesting conversations with 
some of the inmates. 

On 10th April, after having bidden adieu to the Sultan, their 
Royal Highnesses started for the Crimea, making their first stay at 
Sebastopol, where they were courteously received by the Russian 
authorities, headed by General De Kotzbue, who had been Chief of 
the Staff to the Commander of Sebastopol, and no one could have 
shown their Royal Highnesses the sights of the place more com- 
petently and with more tact and good feeling. 

During the four days that the Prince and Princess stayed in a spot 
so intensely full of associations to them both, they saw the battle- 
fields of the Alma, of Inkerman, and Balaclava, and they visited the 
various monuments and memorial chapels. At one village a number 
of Tartars received the Royal visitors with cheers, and made an 
offering of bread and salt to the Prince and Princess. 

After the four days were over, their Royal Highnesses entertained 
the Russian General and his staff on board the Ariadne^ and during 
dinner the band played " God preserve the Emperor," after which the 
Royal host proposed the Czar's health, while the General replied with 
that of the Queen. It is interesting to add that the Russians present 
treated the Crimean war as a matter of history, quite removed from 



8o THE PRINCE OF WALES 

passion or feeling of any kind. The Prince made a point of visiting 
the simple house which was at that time still known as Lord Raglan's 
headquarters, in which is the room where the great commander 
died. They then joined the Ariadne at Yalta, and returned to 
Constantinople, where they again saw the Sultan for a short time, 
and entertained the various Ambassadors. 

On 20th April the Ariadne anchored at Athens, the Prince and 
Princess receiving a very warm welcome from King George, who 
hastened on deck to welcome his sister and brother-in-law. A 
special train was in waiting, and the Royal party soon found 
themselves in the King's Palace, where they spent a few days in 
busy sight-seeing, leaving Athens on 23rd April, where the Queen of 
Greece welcomed her sister-in-law with great warmth. During their 
stay at Corfu the Prince and Princess enjoyed a much-needed period 
of repose. The Prince and Princess returned home through Italy, 
without, however, making any stay in that country. On 12th May 
they found themselves home again at Marlborough House after an 
absence of nearly six months. 

Among the formal acts of ceremony which the Prince performed 
during this year (1869) was the unveiling of a statue of the late Mr. 
George Peabody. In the speech which he delivered on this occasion 
he alluded in the warmest terms to his feeling of personal friendship 
towards the United States and his enduring recollection of the 
reception which had been accorded to him there. 



CHAPTER VII 



THE PRINCE S ILLNESS 



The outbreak and progress of the Franco - Prussian war were 
naturally watched with the keenest interest in Marlborough House. 
Two of the Prince's own brothers-in-law were serving with the 
German forces, while, on the other hand. His Royal Highness not 
only had many close ties with France, but from childhood had 
always regarded the Emperor and Empress of the French with 
special affection. When public subscription lists were opened in aid 
of the ambulances, which distributed medical aid impartially to the 
sick and wounded on both sides, the Prince gave a liberal donation ; 
and when the Empress Eugenie fled to England, one of the first 
visits which she received at Chislehurst was from the Prince and 
Princess of Wales. 

As may be easily imagined, the Prince is very popular all over 
France, and he has had many curious and interesting adventures 
when going out in the stmi- incognito which he affects when 
travelling for pleasure. On one occasion, shortly after the end of 
the war. His Royal Highness, accompanied by General Teesdale, 
visited the battlefield of Sedan. He was naturally anxious that his 
identity should not become known, for French susceptibilities were 
very keen at that time, and he had no desire to appear to glory over 
his brother-in-law's brilliant victories. When the time came to pay 
the hotel bill General Teesdale found with great dismay that he had 
no ready cash ; the Prince was in an equally penniless condition ; 
while any telegram sent would have disclosed the identity of the 
Royal visitor. At length, after much discussion, the equerry made 

G 



82 -THE PRINCE OF WALES 

his way to the local Mont de Pieie and placed both his own and the 
Prince's repeater in pawn. 

Exactly ten years after the first dread news of the Prince 
Consort's fatal illness had gone forth, it became known that the 
Prince of Wales was lying seriously ill at Sandringham. Not very 
long before, Princess Alice, who was then staying at Sandringham, 
wrote the following note to the Queen : — 

" It is the first time since eleven years that I have spent Bertie's 
birthday with him, and though we have only three of our own 
family together, still that is better than nothing, and makes it seem 
more like a birthday. Bertie and Alix are so kind, and give us so 
warm a welcome, showing how they like having us, that it feels 
quite home. Indeed, I pray earnestly that God's blessing may rest 
on him, and that he may be guided to do what is wise and right, so 
that he may tide safely through the anxious times that are before 
him, and in which we now live." 

Princess Alice little knew the days and nights of anxious misery 
that were coming so swiftly upon her brother's peaceful household, 
and indeed upon the whole nation. The Prince of Wales sickened 
in London, but as soon as he felt himself to be seriously attacked 
he insisted on going home to Norfolk, where the disease was 
pronounced to be typhoid fever. 

The Prince, his groom Blegge, and Lord Chesterfield, who had 
all been at Scarborough with Lord Londesborough, were stricken 
simultaneously, and public attention was soon wholly concentrated on 
the three cases. Curiously enough, the groom and the peer both died, 
though in neither case were any pains or expense spared. Doubtless 
the Prince's youth and excellent constitution stood him in good stead, 
but for many days the issue was considered exceedingly doubtful. 

His Royal Highness was nursed entirely by the Princess of 
Wales and Princess Alice, his medical attendants being Doctors 
Jenner, Gull, Clayton, and Lowe. On the last day of November 
came a semi-official notification : — 

" The Princess of Wales has borne her great trial in the most 
admirable manner and with singular equanimity. While fully aware 
of the gravity of the Prince's serious illness, Her Royal Highness 
has throughout been calm and collected." 



THE PRINCE'S ILLNESS 83 

But it was well known that the Prince's state was very critical, 
and soon it was announced that the Queen was going to Sandringham, 
which she did on 29th November, 

Again and again there was a report of a relapse, and the feeling 
aroused through the United Kingdom was far greater than any 
public expression of emotion since the death of Princess Charlotte in 
1 8 1 7. In every town, according to the Times' reports, crowds waited 
anxiously for the issue of newspapers containing the latest news of 
the Prince's condition, and the Government found it expedient to 
forward the medical bulletins to every telegraph office in the United 
Kingdom. In the churches of every religious communion, prayers 
were offered, though almost without hope, for the recovery of the 
Prince. 

At length, on ist December, the Prince recovered consciousness, 
and his first remark to those about him was, " This is the Princess's 
birthday." The next coherent utterance came when he heard that 
the Queen had been at Sandringham. " Has the Queen come from 
Scotland.? Does she know I am ill.?" he asked; but this slight 
rally did not continue, and soon all the Royal family were summoned 
to Sandringham. On 9th December the fever had spent itself, but 
the patient's strength was considered to be exhausted. Special 
prayers were offered up in all churches for the Prince's recovery ; 
and shortly before the service in St. Mary Magdalene's, Sandringham, 
the Vicar received the following note from the Princess of Wales : — 

" My husband being, thank God, somewhat better, I am coming 
to church. I must leave, I fear, before the service is concluded, 
that I may watch by his bedside. Can you not say a few words in 
prayer in the early part of the service, that I may join with you in 
prayer for my husband before I return to him .? " The Vicar, before 
reading the Collect, in a voice trembling with emotion, which he 
vainly strove to suppress, said : " The prayers of the congregation 
are earnestly sought for His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, 
who is now most seriously ill." 

The day following, an article in the Times commenced : "The 
Prince still lives and we may still therefore hope "; and so the weary 
days dragged on. On the 1 6th it was recorded that the patient had 
enjoyed a quiet and refreshing sleep, and on the 17th, a Sunday, 



84 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

those of the Royal family who were then at Sandringham were 
present at church, when, by special request, the Prince and Blegge 
were recommended to the mercy of God in the same prayer. That 
same day the Princess visited the poor dying groom, and after his 
death, which occurred within the next few hours, both she and the 
Queen found time, in the midst of their terrible anxiety, to visit and 
comfort his relations. 

By Christmas Day the danger may be said to have been over, 
and on 26th December the Queen wrote the following letter to the 
nation : — 

"The Queen is very anxious to express her deep sense of the 
touching sympathy of the whole nation on the occasion of the alarm- 
ing illness of her dear son, the Prince of. Wales. The universal 
feeling shown by her people during those painful, terrible days, and 
the sympathy evinced by them with herself and her beloved daughter, 
the Princess of Wales, as well as the general joy at the improvement 
of the Prince of Wales's state, have made a deep and lasting impres- 
sion on her heart, which can never be effaced. ..." 

The Princess of Wales and Princess Alice now felt that their 
patient was well enough for them to leave him for an hour or two 
in order to assist at the distribution of Christmas gifts to the labourers 
on the estate. In the ceiling of the room now occupied by the 
Princess of Wales as a bed-chamber, the mark of an orifice may 
still be seen from which projected a hook supporting a trapeze, by 
the aid of which the Prince, when on the slow and weary road to 
convalescence, could change his position and pull himself up into a 
sitting posture. 

Another memento of the Prince's terrible illness is the brass 
lectern in the parish church. On it runs an inscription : — 

To THE GLORY OF GoD. 
A THANK-OFFERING FOR HiS MERCY. 

14TH December 1871. 
Alexandra. 

"When I was in trouble I called upon the Lord, and He heard me." 

The last bulletin was issued on 14th January, and nine days later 
Sir William Jenner was gazetted a K.C.B. and Dr. W. Gull was 



THE PRINCE'S ILLNESS 85 

created a baronet — rewards which gave particular satisfaction to the 
nation. 

It was whispered at the time that the Prince, under Providence, 
really owed his recovery to one of those sudden inspirations of 
genius of which the history of medicine is full. His Royal High- 
ness seemed to be actually in extremis, when one of his medical 
attendants sent in haste for two bottles of old champagne brandy 
and rubbed the patient with it vigorously all over till returning 
animation rewarded the doctor's efforts. 

The Prince's recovery was hailed with feelings of deep thankful- 
ness by the whole nation, and it was universally deemed appropriate 
that public thanks should be returned to Almighty God for His 
great mercy. The utmost interest was taken by all classes of society 
in the preparations for the proposed National Thanksgiving. Mr. 
William Longman wrote to the Times urging that, as in 1664 and 
1678, subscriptions should be invited for the completion of the 
Cathedral Church of St. Paul in London as a perpetual memorial of 
His Royal Highness's recovery. 

During the interval before the day fixed for the National 
Thanksgiving, the Prince and Princess paid visits to Windsor and 
Osborne. When they returned to London one of the first visitors 
they received was Dr. Stanley, who had now become Dean of 
Westminster. It was resolved that their Royal Highnesses should 
attend a private service of thanksgiving in the Abbey, which the 
Dean thus describes in a letter to an intimate correspondent : — 

" I went to Marlborough House to suggest, through Fisher and 
Keppel, that the Prince of Wales should come. He consented at 
once, and it was agreed that he, the Princess, and the Crown Prince 
of Denmark, and if in town. Prince Alfred, should come. I kept 
it a secret except from the Canons. We met them at the great 
Western door ; the nave (as usual) was quite clear. They walked in 
with me, and took their places on my right. I preached on Psalm 
cxxii. I. The Prince of Wales heard every word, and has decided 
that it shall be published, which it will be, and you shall have a copy. 
It was one of those rare occasions on which I was able to say all that 
I wished to say. They were conducted again to the West door, and 
departed." 



86 



THE PRINCE OF WALES 



The day fixed for the public National Thanksgiving in St. Paul's 
was 27th February, and never, save perhaps on 22nd June 1897, did 
the Queen and the Prince and Princess of Wales receive a more 
splendid and heartfelt ovation. Thirteen thousand people were 




Thanksgiving Day, 1872 : The Scene at Temple Bar 

From the '■'■Illustrated London Neius" 

admitted to the Cathedral, among them being most of the notabilities 
of the day, including all the great officers of State. 

The procession set out from Buckingham Palace at twelve o'clock. 
First came the Speaker, the Lord Chancellor, and the Commander- 
in-Chief, in their carriages, followed by nine Royal equipages, in the 
last of which sat the Queen, dressed in black velvet trimmed with 



THE PRINCE'S ILLNESS 87 

broad bands of white ermine, the Princess of Wales in blue silk 
covered with black lace, the Prince of Wales in the uniform of 
a British general and wearing the Collars of the Orders of the 
Garter and the Bath, Prince Albert Victor, then a boy of eight, and 
Princess Beatrice. 

In the Green Park the procession was greeted by an army of 
30,000 children, who sang the National Anthem as the Royal 
carriages drove by. 

St. Paul's was reached at one o'clock, and the Royal party were 
received at the great West door by the Dean and Chapter. The 
Queen passed up the nave leaning on the arm of the Prince, who 
conducted Her Majesty to a pew which had been specially prepared 
for the occasion. 

The service began with the " Te Deum," and after some prayers 
a special form of thanksgiving which had been officially drawn up 
was said. Then the Archbishop of Canterbury preached a short 
sermon from the text, Romans xii. 5, "Members one of another." 
The service concluded with a thanksgiving hymn which had been 
specially written for the occasion. The proceedings were over by 
two o'clock, and the procession returned by a different route, 
along Holborn and Oxford Street, in the presence of an enthusiastic 
crowd said to be the largest ever collected in London. As the 
poet sings : — 

Bear witness, thou memorable day. 

When, pale as yet, and fever-worn, the Prince, 

Who scarce had plucked his flickering life again 

From halfway down the shadow of the grave, 
Past through the people and their love, 

And London roll'd one tide of joy thro' all 

Her trebled millions and loud leagues of men. 

Two days later the Queen wrote from Buckingham Palace to Mr. 
Gladstone, who was then Prime Minister, one of those touching 
letters which have on many occasions drawn still more closely 
together the ties of loyalty and affection between Her Majesty and 
her people. The Queen wrote that she was anxious "to express 
publicly her own personal very deep sense of the reception she and her 
dear children met with on Tuesday, the 27th of February, from 



88 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

millions of her subjects on her way to and from St. Paul's. Words 
are too weak for the Queen to say how very deeply touched and 
gratified she has been by the immense enthusiasm and affection 
exhibited towards her dear son and herself, from the highest down 
to the lowest, in the long progress through the capital, and she would 
earnestly wish to convey her warmest and most heartfelt thanks to 
the whole nation for this great demonstration of loyalty. The Queen, 
as well as her son and dear daughter-in-law, felt that the whole nation 




Thanksgiving Day, 1872 : The Procession up Ludgate Hill 

From the ^'"Illustrated London Neius^^ 



joined with them in thanking God for sparing the beloved Prince 
of Wales's life. ..." 

The impression made by the Prince's illness and marvellous 
recovery upon the Royal family in general is well illustrated by the 
following passage from a- letter written by Princess Alice to her 
mother in December 1872 : — 

" That our good, sweet Alix should have been spared this 
terrible grief, when this time last year it seemed so imminent, fills 



THE PRINCE'S ILLNESS 89 

my heart with gratitude for her dear sake, as for yours, his children 
and ours. . . . The 14th will now be a day of mixed recollections 
and feelings to us, a day hallowed in our family, when one great 
spirit ended his work on earth . . . and when another was left to 
fulfil his duty and mission, God grant, for the welfare of his own 
family and of thousands." 



CHAPTER VIII 

1873-1875 

The year 1873 was spent on the whole very quietly by the Prince 
and Princess of Wales. His Royal Highness took up once more 
the thread of his public life which had been interrupted for a con- 
siderable time by his illness and convalescence. Accompanied by 
his brother, Prince Arthur, he went to Vienna in May to represent 
the British Royal family at the opening of the International 
Exhibition there. In June the Prince and Princess were deeply 
grieved to hear of the death of the infant son of Princess Alice of 
Hesse, who was killed by falling out of the window of his mother's 
room in the Royal Palace at Darmstadt. But their Royal 
Highnesses, though the blow was exceptionally severe owing to 
their fond affection for Princess Alice, were compelled in the midst 
of their grief to devote a considerable portion of their time to 
entertaining the Shah. A great dinner was given in his honour at 
Marlborough House, and the Prince of Wales spared neither time 
nor trouble in doing honour to our distinguished Oriental visitor. 

A pleasant glimpse of the home life at Sandringham about this 
time is given in the following letters from the witty and eloquent 
Archbishop Magee (then Bishop of Peterborough), written to his 
wife : — 

"Sandringham, (ith Deceinber 1873. 

"... I arrived just as they were all at tea in the entrance hall, 
and had to walk in, all seedy and dishevelled from my day's 
journey, and sit down beside the Princess of Wales, with Disraeli 
on the other side of me, and sundry lords and ladies round the 




The Queen, with the Princes Albert Victor and George, and the 
Princess Victoria of Wales 

From the Painting by James Sant, R.A. 



92 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

table. The Prince received me very kindly, and certainly has 
most winning and gracious manners. The Princess seems smaller 
and thinner than I remember her at Dublin. They seem to be 
pleasant and domesticated, with little state and very simple ways." 

'■'■ 'jth Decefnber 1873. 
" Just returned from church, where I preached for twenty-six 
minutes (Romans viii. 28). The church is a very small country 
one close to the grounds. The house, as I saw it by daylight, is a 
handsome country house of red stone with white facings, standing 
well and looking quietly comfortable and suitable. I find the 
company pleasant and civil, but we are a curious mixture. Two 
Jews, Sir A. Rothschild and his daughter ; an ex-Jew, Disraeli ; a 
Roman Catholic, Colonel Higgins ; an Italian duchess who is an 
Englishwoman, and her daughter brought up as a Roman Catholic 
and now turning Protestant ; a set of young lords, and a bishop. 
The Jewess came to church ; so did the half-Protestant young lady. 
Dizzy did the same, and was profuse in his praises of my sermon. 
We are all to lunch together in a few minutes, the children dining 
with us. They seem, the two I saw in church, nice, clever-looking 
little bodies, and very like their mother." 

The Prince and Princess of Wales represented the Queen at the 
marriage of the Duke of Edinburgh and the Grand Duchess Marie 
of Russia in January 1874. The English marriage service was 
performed by Dean Stanley, who wrote to the Queen an interesting 
letter describing the Imperial wedding, in which he mentioned how 
much he had been struck, both in the chapel and at the subsequent 
banquet, by the singular difference in character and expression of 
the four future kings, the Prince of Wales, the Crown Prince of 
Prussia, the Cesarewitch, and the Crown Prince of Denmark, who 
were all present. 

On the Sunday following the wedding the Prince and Princess 
of Wales attended the service at the English Church in St. Peters- 
burg, and the Dean preached on the marriage feast at Cana in 
Galilee, much the same sermon which he had preached in the Chapel- 
Royal at Whitehall on the Sunday following the marriage of the 
Prince and Princess of Wales. During this visit to Russia the 



1873-1875 93 

Prince and Princess were received with unusual distinction, and a 
grand parade of troops was held in His Royal Highness's honour. 

The Prince of Wales dined in the Middle Temple Hall on 
Grand Night of Trinity term in 1874. On this occasion His Royal 
Highness humorously expressed the opinion that it was a good thing 
for the profession at large, and for the public in general, that he 
had never practised at the Bar, for he could never have been an 
ornament to it, in saying which his modesty probably led him 
astray, for he is a thoughtful and lucid speaker, and his habits of 
method and order would certainly have stood him in good stead if 
he had been compelled to apply his mind to any profession. 

When the Prince and Princess were first married they always 
gave two great balls at Marlborough House each year — one on the 
anniversary of their wedding day, and one at the close of the 
London season. But the most splendid entertainment ever given 
by the Prince and Princess was the great fancy dress ball in July 
1874. Over fourteen hundred invitations were sent out, and the 
Royal host and hostess made no stipulations as to the choice of 
costume, leaving it to individual taste. The Princess wore a 
Venetian dress, and was attended by her two young sons as pages. 
The Prince appeared as Charles I., wearing a costume exactly copied 
from the famous Vandyke picture, that is, a maroon satin and 
velvet suit, partly covered with a short black velvet cloak, while 
the black hat, trimmed with one long white feather, was looped up 
with an aigrette of brilliants. He also wore high buff boots, long 
spurs and sword, while round his neck hung the Collar of the 
Garter. 

Many of the costumes worn were very interesting and curious. 
In the Fairy Tale Quadrille, the Earl of Rosebery, then quite a 
youth, was Blue Beard ; Mr. Albert (now Earl) Grey, Puss in 
Boots ; and the Duke of Connaught, the Beast. Lord Charles and 
Lord Marcus Beresford were a couple of Court jesters. The only 
person present who was not in fancy dress was Benjamin Disraeli, 
then Prime Minister. He wore the official dress of a Privy 
Councillor. 

That same year the Prince and Princess visited Birmingham for 
the first time, being received by the then mayor, Mr. Joseph 



94 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

Chamberlain, who was at the time credited with being so advanced 
a Republican that many fears were expressed that he might behave 
with scant courtesy to his Royal guests, and bets were even taken 
as to whether he would consent to shake hands with the Prince of 
Wales ! However, these prognostications proved groundless, and 
the people of Birmingham gave an unparalleled demonstration of 
loyalty which gratified their Royal Highnesses extremely. 

The festivities of the following Christmas were overshadowed 
by the death at Sandringham from inflammation of the lungs of 
Colonel Grey, who had been for some time a valued member of the 
Prince's household. It was with reference to this sad loss that 
Princess Alice wrote to the Queen : — " Dear Bertie's true and 
constant heart suffers on such occasions, for he can be constant in 
friendship, and all who serve him, serve him' with warm attach- 
ment." 

In 1875 ^^^ death of Canon Kingsley came as a great blow to 
the Prince and Princess of Wales, who were both fondly attached 
to the famous writer. 



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The Prince's Indian Tour, 1875 



CHAPTER IX 



THE PRINCE OF WALES S TOUR IN INDIA 



Lord Canning, the great Viceroy of India, once told the Prince 
Consort how desirable he thought it that the Prince of Wales 
should, when grown up, visit Queen Victoria's Eastern Empire, 
and later on, those who had the privilege of the young Prince's 
friendship were well aware that an Indian tour had become one of 
his most ardent wishes. 

But the project of the Heir-Apparent's visit to India only really 
took shape early in 1875, ^^^ ^^ 20th March it was publicly 
announced that the Prince of Wales contemplated this journey, the 
Marquis of Salisbury at the same time making an official announce- 
ment to the Council of India of the intended event. The Council 
passed a resolution that the expenditure actually incurred in India 
should be charged on the revenues of that country. 

Curiously enough, a great deal of hostile feeling was aroused by 
the announcement of this Royal tour. On 17th July a great meeting 
was held in Hyde Park to protest against the grant of money which 
was then being sanctioned by Parliament to defray the expenses of 
the journey. Many people went so far as to declare that they 
would have acquiesced in the passing of the vote had the Heir- 
Apparent's visit to his mother's Eastern dominions been a " State 
visit" instead of a mere "pleasure trip." And yet it need hardly 
be pointed out that, greatly as the Prince looked forward to his 



96 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

tour, the journey was likely to prove anything but a mere " pleasure 
trip " to India's Royal visitor. He and those about him well knew 
that from the moment he landed at Bombay till the day he left 
India he would not only constantly remain en evidence^ but he also 
expected to conciliate the many different races with which he was 
going to be brought in contact when passing through the various 
Indian States. 

There were many points to be considered about the tour. The 
rules and regulations which had sufficed for the Prince in Canada 
and the Colonies were inapplicable to India. One notable feature of 
Oriental manners is the exchange of presents between visitors and 
hosts, and it was early arranged that His Royal Highness's luggage 
should contain _^40,ooo worth of presents to be distributed among 
the great feudatory and other potentates who would have the 
honour of entertaining or at any rate of meeting the Prince. 

It was also arranged that the Prince was to be guest of the 
Viceroy, Lord Northbrook, from the moment he landed on 
Indian soil ; and, roughly speaking, it was estimated that the 
expenses of the Prince's reception alone would probably come to 
about ^30,000. The estimate made by the Admiralty for the 
expenses of the voyage to and from India and the movements of the 
fleet in connection with the Royal visit came to ^52,000; while for 
the personal expenses of the Prince's visit a vote of ^^60,000 was 
included in the estimate submitted to the House of Commons when 
in Committee of Supply. However, here again this suggestion did 
not meet with universal approval when the necessary resolution was 
brought forward in the House. Mr. Fawcett, afterwards Post- 
master-General, raised a discussion, basing his objections to the vote 
partly on sentimental and partly on economic grounds. However, 
he only found thirty-three members to agree with him, and the vote 
was passed. During the debate, Mr. Disraeli, who was then Prime 
Minister, drew a very remarkable picture of the extraordinary pomp 
and circumstance with which the Prince was about to be sur- 
rounded. 

It was felt better that His Royal Highness should go as 
Heir-Apparent of the Crown, and not as the representative of Her 
Majesty, but, as might have been expected, these fine distinctions 



TOUR IN INDIA 



97 



were not understood in India, and the Prince was expected to 
do just as much as he would have done in a more directly official 
capacity. 

Before starting on his tour the Prince of Wales thoroughly 

studied the subject of India and her peoples, and he even made 

. himself acquainted with the peculiarities of every one of the large 

Indian cities where he would be expected to receive and answer 

addresses. 

The question of the suite was, as may be imagined, very im- 
portant. It was early decided that Sir Bartle Frere, whose name 
was familiar to millions of the inhabitants of India, should 
accompany the Prince of Wales, and the Duke of Sutherland was 
also asked to join the party. Of His Royal Highness's private 
friends, the Earl of Aylesford, Lord (now Earl) Carrington, 
Colonel (now General) Owen Williams, and Lieutenant (now 
Admiral) Lord Charles Beresford, also accepted an invitation to 
be . of the party. Then came the official Household, consisting of 
Lord Suffield ; Colonel Ellis, the Prince's equerry, to whom was 
confided the delicate question of the giving and receiving of 
presents ; General (now Sir Dighton) Probyn, to whom were left the 
arrangements for horses, travelling, and shooting parties; and Mr. 
(now Sir Francis) Knollys, the Prince's private secretary. Canon 
Duckworth went as chaplain, and Dr. (now Sir Joseph) Fayrer 
as medical man. Mr. Albert Grey (now Earl Grey) went as 
private secretary to Sir Bartle Frere, Mr. S. P. Hall accompanied 
the Prince in order to sketch the incidents of the tour, while Lord 
Alfred Paget was specially commissioned by Her Majesty to join 
the suite. Dr. W. H. (now Sir William) Russell, the famous 
war correspondent, who was temporarily attached to the suite as 
honorary private secretary to the Prince, wrote on his return a 
very interesting account of the tour, entitled "The Prince of 
Wales's Tour in India," which has remained the standard authority 
on the subject. 

On the day that His Royal Highness left Sandringham, amid 
many demonstrations of good-will and wishings of God-speed from 
his country neighbours, he presented the Princess with a team of 
Corsican ponies and a miniature drag. The Prince spent the last 

H 



fl 



98 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

few days of his stay in England with the Princess and his children 
at Marlborough House. On the Sunday before his departure they 
were all present at divine service in Westminster Abbey, and the 
next day His Royal Highness went to say good-bye to his old 
friend Dean Stanley, who, in a letter to an intimate correspondent, 
gave the following vivid description of the visit : — 

" On the Sunday night we had a message to say that the Prince 
and Princess of Wales would come to take leave of us at 3.30 p.m. 
the next day. They came about 4 p.m., having been detained by 
the members of the family coming to Marlborough House. 

" They brought all the five children, wishing, the Prince said, to 
have them all with him as long as possible. 

" They all came up, and remained about twenty minutes. 
Fanny was in the back library, and the children, after being for a few 
minutes with Augusta, who was delighted to see them, went to her. 

"The Prince and Princess remained with Augusta and me. 
A. talked with all her usual animation. They were both extremely 
kind. The Princess looked inexpressibly sad. There was nothing 
much said of interest, chiefly talking of the voyage, etc. As I 
took him downstairs, he spoke of the dangers — but calmly and 
rationally, saying that, of course, the precautions must be left to 
those about him. I said to him, ' I gave you my parting bene- 
diction in the Abbey yesterday.' ' Yes,' he replied, ' I saw it. 
Thank you.' 

" Later on in the evening Augusta wished me to telegraph our 
renewed thanks and renewed good wishes to the Castalia at Dover. 
I did so, and at 11 p.m. there came back a telegram from him : 
' Many thanks for your kind message. God bless both of you ! Just 
off for Calais ! ' " 

The Prince of Wales started from London on nth October, 
immense popular interest being taken in the event. Huge crowds 
assembled long before the departure of the special train from 
Charing Cross, and the Prince and Princess were wildly cheered. 
The Princess accompanied her husband as far as Calais, and then 
the Prince travelled across the Continent incognito^ meeting his 
suite, who had started a few days previously, at Brindisi. 

The eventful journey was made in the Serapis, one of the old 



TOUR IN INDIA 99 

large Indian troopships, and the voyage was very successful from 
every point of view. The Royal party spent a few days at Athens, 
where the Prince was entertained by his brother-in-law, the King of 
Greece, to whom he had brought a number of gifts from Sandring- 
ham, including an Alderney bull and cow, a ram and sheep, several 
British pigs, and a number of horses. 

From the Piraeus the Serapis proceeded to Egypt, and His 
Royal Highness invested Prince Tewfik, the Khedive's eldest son, 




Embarkation on Board the " Serapis " at Brindisi 

with the Order of the Star of India. From there the Prince 
went on without interruption. 

As the Serapis steamed onwards the various programmes of the 
Prince of Wales's progress through India were submitted to His 
Royal Highness, and even the addresses which were to be presented 
to him were shown and his answers were carefully prepared ; in 
fact, before he left Aden, His Royal Highness knew with what 
words the Corporation of Bombay would receive him. 

As may be easily imagined, all India was by now in a ferment 
of excitement, and the official world were very much concerned at the 



lOO 



THE PRINCE OF WALES 



immense responsibility placed upon them by the mother -country. 
Four officers, of whom two had obtained the Victoria Cross, were 
carefully selected and commissioned to look after the comfort and 
the safety of the Prince and of his suite. Major Bradford being 
entrusted with the responsible task of attending to the safety of 
the Royal visitor's own person. 

The question as to how the Prince was to make his first 
appearance in Bombay was keenly discussed, and at one time it was 
thought that splendidly caparisoned elephants would form the most 
fitting mode of transport from the landing-stage to Government 
House, but finally the party went in carriages. Among the cargo 
of the Scraps were three valuable horses, specially chosen from 
the Marlborough House stables, which had been regularly taken to 
the Zoo, in order to be accustomed to the sight of the wild beasts 
and reptiles which they were likely to meet with in India. 

At last it was noised abroad that the Scraps had been sighted, 
and the Viceroy, Lord Northbrook (now the Earl of Northbrook), 
went out to meet His Royal Highness, returning to Bombay in 
order to receive the Prince on landing. There was a good deal of 
discreet curiosity as to which of them would give precedence to the 
other, for of course the Viceroy represents Her Majesty, and so was 
entitled to take precedence, but Lord Northbrook, with considerable 
tact, unobtrusively gave his Royal guest the first place. 

The moment the Prince of Wales emerged from the dockyard a 
salute was fired, and at every station in India, whether important or 
obscure, the signal was given by telegraph for a Royal salute 
wherever there were guns to fire it. 

While actually in Bombay His Royal Highness and his suite 
became the guests of the Governor, Sir Philip Woodhouse, and it 
was there that two days after his arrival in India the Prince cele- 
brated his thirty-fourth birthday, the first object which met his eyes 
in the morning being a charming portrait of the Princess, which had 
been specially entrusted to Sir Bartle Frere by Her Royal Highness. 
On this eventful day the glories and the fatigues of the Prince's 
Indian tour may be said to have begun. 

The Royal birthday was duly honoured all over Hindustan 
at noon, and although the heat, even at 8 a.m., had been very 



TOUR IN INDIA loi 

considerable, the Prince was compelled to hold a great reception in 
full dress, that is to say, in a uniform of English cloth loaded with 
lace and buttoned up to the throat. The scene was very impressive. 
The Prince during the reception was seated on a silver throne, and 
everything was done to invest the affair with the greatest pomp and 
circumstance. His suite all stood round him in full uniform ; 
behind the throne was a portrait of the Queen ; and although the 
Prince was not supposed to hold durbars, the ceremony being simply 
styled a private visit or reception, it was in every way as impressive 
and remarkable as if it had carried full official significance. 

An immense number of native Princes and Rajahs paid their 
respects in person to their future Sovereign. The first potentate 
presented to His Royal Highness was the Rajah of Kholapur, a child 
of twelve years old, the ruler of nearly a million people. The little 
Rajah was attired in purple velvet and white muslin encrusted with 
gems, his turban containing a King's ransom of pearls and rubies. 
In spite of his extreme youth the Indian Prince remained perfectly 
serious, and went through the somewhat complicated ceremonies 
with perfect self-possession. 

After the last Rajah had departed, the Prince had a long talk 
with the Viceroy, and then made his way to the Serapis, where he 
had the pleasure of seeing the crew enjoying the birthday dinner 
provided by himself. He also cut a birthday cake, and looked over 
the telegrams just received from Sandringham. That same evening 
was held a great reception, to which naturally the British officials 
and residents came in great force. 

The next few days were also equally well filled. The Prince 
had to pay elaborate return visits to the chiefs and Rajahs who had 
attended his reception, and it was then that His Royal Highness 
was enabled to show his tact and the extraordinary knowledge he 
had acquired of their complicated ranks and genealogies ; indeed, he 
greatly pleased several important Rajahs by showing that he had 
heard of the antiquity of their families, and by graciously alluding 
to the gallant deeds of their ancestors. The British people of 
Bombay had organised a great dinner for the sailors of the fleet, -and, 
much to their gratification, the Prince consented to attend the 
banquet. Not content with a mere formal glance at the proceedings, 



I02 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

His Royal Highness mounted a plank, and with a glass in his hand, 
exclaimed to the delighted men, of whom there were over two 
thousand present, " My lads, I am glad to meet you all. I drink 
your good health, and a happy voyage home." 

The Prince of Wales took the opportunity of laying the 
foundation-stone of the Elphinstone Docks, the ceremony being 
carried out with Masonic honours, and it was considered very 
interesting and significant that among members of the craft present 
were Parsees, Mahomedans, and Hindus. 

During the month of November the Prince visited Poona, where 
he held a review, and visited the Court of the Gaikwar of Baroda. 
There a fine elephant was prepared for his use. The animal was of 
extraordinary size, and the howdah on which the Prince rode was 
said to have cost four lakhs of rupees. His Royal Highness held a 
reception at the Residency, and had his first sight of Indian sport, for 
he attended a cheetah hunt, himself killing a fine buck, and much 
enjoying his day's sport. About the same time he also joined a pig- 
sticking expedition, a very popular Indian sport, and at last, to his 
great satisfaction, had the opportunity of "getting his spear," in 
other words, of killing a wild boar. 

Then, returning to Bombay, the Royal party once more took 
up their quarters on the Serapis, where the Prince spent the 
Princess's birthday. From Bombay he found time to visit the 
Portuguese settlement of Goa, and thence went on to Ceylon, where 
he inspected a tea plantation, and where the peepul planted by 
him in commemoration of his visit is still proudly shown to the 
ubiquitous globe-trotter. 

At Madras the Prince of Wales had a splendid reception, spend- 
ing, however, 14th December, the anniversary of his father's death, 
in retirement at Guindy Park, the country seat of the Governor, 
eight miles from the city. 

Christmas Day was spent in Calcutta, where an immense pro- 
gramme was gone through, including a considerable number of 
public ceremonies, the holding of audiences, and last, but not least, 
a levee^ at which both natives and Europeans were present. After 
the Prince and the Viceroy had attended divine service in the 
Cathedral, His Royal Highness entertained a large party at lunch 



TOUR IN INDIA 103 

in the Scraps. His health was drunk with Highland honours, 
and many messages were exchanged between himself and "home." 
On the afternoon of the same day the Royal party drove out to the 
Viceregal Lodge at Barrackpur. 

The most important ceremony attended by His Royal Highness 
in India, namely, a Chapter of the Order of the Star of India, at 
which the Prince acted as High Commissioner, was held on New 
Year's Day, 1876. His Royal Highness wore a field-marshal's 
uniform, almost concealed beneath the folds of his sky-blue satin 
mantle, the train of which was carried by two naval cadets, who 
wore cocked hats over their powdered wigs, blue satin cloaks, trunk 
hose, and shoes with rosettes. The Chapter tent was carpeted with 
cloth of gold with the Royal Arms emblazoned in the centre. An 
immense number of the Companions of the Order attended, forming 
a most impressive procession, walking two and two, one half native 
and the other European. The Begum of Bhopal, the first Knight 
Grand Commander, had a procession all to herself. She was veiled 
and swathed in brocades and silks, over which was folded the light 
blue satin robe of the Order. 

The Prince took his seat on the dai's, and after the roll of the 
Order had been read, each member standing up as his name was 
called, the Chapter was declared open, and His Royal Highness 
directed the investiture to proceed. Never had such a gathering 
been seen in India. Among those present were Lord Napier of 
Magdala, " Political " Maitland, the Maharajah of Kashmir, and 
the Rajah of Patiala, who wore the great Sancy diamond in his 
turban. 

As each investiture took place, seventeen guns were fired, and 
the secretary proclaimed aloud the titles of the newly-made Knight 
Grand Commander or Companion as the case might be. The 
pageant was incomparably splendid, the close of the ceremony being 
quite as fine as the beginning, for the Knights Grand Cross, the 
Knights Grand Commanders, and the Companions all formed once 
more in a procession in the reverse order of their entry. 

At the close of the Prince's visit to Calcutta His Royal High- 
ness began his journeys by rail. At Benares he visited the famous 
Temples, and the Golden Pool, going from thence by steamer to 



I04 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

the old port of Rammagar, where he and his suite were splendidly 
received by the Maharajah, who presented him with some very 
costly shawls and brocades, together with what is to an Indian the 
very highest proof of regard, namely his own walking-stick, a thick 
staff mounted with gold. 

At Lucknow the Prince laid the foundation-stone of a memorial 
to the natives who fell in the defence of the Residency. On this 
occasion His Royal Highness took the opportunity of paying a 
well-deserved tribute to the faithful soldiers of the native army. 
Some of the veterans were presented to him, and they were not 
allowed to be hurried by, ragged, squalid, or unclean ; indeed, 
the Prince insisted on exchanging a few words with several of them. 

While at Lucknow His Royal Highness took part in a pig- 
sticking expedition, at which Lord Carrington's left collar-bone was 
broken, and curiously enough. Lord Napier of Magdala met with a 
precisely similar accident on the same day. 

From Delhi the Prince proceeded to Cawnpore, a spot he had 
been extremely anxious to visit, in common with many less illustrious 
tourists. His Royal Highness, after a drive to the site of the old 
cantonments, where the heroic defence took place, made his way to 
the Memorial Church, where he stopped close to the gateway 
which no native may pass through. There the Prince alighted, 
and, with signs of deep emotion, walked to the spot which marks 
the place of the fatal well. There was deep silence as he read 
aloud in a low voice the touching words, " To the memory of a 
great company of Christian people, principally women and children, 
who were cruelly slaughtered here." 

On returning to Delhi the Prince held a levee, attended by 
hundreds of British officers, at the close of which several notabilities 
of the native army were presented. The next day a great review 
was held. Lord Napier of Magdala entertaining the Prince at his 
own camp. Delhi was illuminated, and no trouble was spared in 
showing what was once the capital city of India to Her Majesty's 
Heir- Apparent. 

Some interesting hours were spent at Agra, where His Royal 
Highness went to see the Taj illuminated, the beautiful marble 
" Queen of Sorrow " erected by the Shah Jehan in memory of his 



TOUR IN INDIA 



105 



much-loved wife, Moomtaz i Mahul, who died in childbirth of 
her eighth child. The Prince was so greatly charmed with the 




The Prince's Visit to the Cawnpore Memorial 



beauty of the Taj, lit up by myriad lights, that he would not return 
to the city till nearly midnight. All through the journeys and 
expeditions which immediately followed, His Royal Highness could 



io6 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

not forget what he had seen, and before finally leaving the district 
he paid one more visit to the famous tomb, seeing it this time not 
illuminated, but by the beautiful full Indian moonlight. 

The Prince shot his first tiger on 5th February in the neigh- 
bourhood of Jeypur. Then he returned through Lucknow, Cawn- 
pore, and Allahabad. At Jubbulpur His Royal Highness went 
through the prison, and had some talk with seven Thugs who had 
been thirty-five years in confinement, and whose life in the first 
instance had only been spared because they had turned Queen's 
evidence. The Prince questioned them as to their hideous trade, 
and one man, a villainous-looking individual, answered proudly, in 
reply to the question as to how many people he had murdered, 
"Sixty-seven." 

The Prince of Wales and his suite left Bombay for home on 
13th March, just seventeen weeks after the Serapis had first dropped 
anchor in Bombay harbour. During those four months His Royal 
Highness had travelled close on 8000 miles by land and 2500 miles 
by sea, and during that time the Prince had become acquainted with 
more Rajahs than had all the Viceroys who had ever reigned over 
India, and he had seen more of the country than had any living 
Englishman. 

The intelligence that the Queen was about to assume the title of 
Empress of India had become known before the Serapis left Bombay, 
and caused the Prince great gratification. Curiously enough, His 
Royal Highness met Lord Lytton, who was on his way out to 
Hindustan to succeed Lord Northbrook as Viceroy, when the 
Serapis was going through the Suez Canal. 

The Royal party spent five days in Egypt. By 6th April Malta 
was in sight, and the Prince was received there with great enthusiasm, 
as was also the case at Gibraltar, where His Royal Highness had the 
pleasure of meeting the Duke of Connaught. From there the 
Serapis proceeded by easy stages round Spain, the Prince taking the 
opportunity of visiting Seville, Cordova, Madrid, the Escurial, 
Lisbon, and Cintra. At Madrid King Alphonso came to meet the 
Prince at the station, and they drove together to the Palace, going 
from there to Toledo in order that His Royal Highness might visit 
the famous manufactory of Toledo blades. 



TOUR IN INDIA 107 

As the Serapis anchored near Yarmouth the Prince of Wales 
was informed that the Princess and the Royal children had come to 
meet him on board the Enchantress. His Royal Highness im- 
mediately went on board their ship, bringing the Princess and their 
children back with him a quarter of an hour later on to the Serapis, 
the Royal party landing an hour afterwards at Plymouth. 

It need hardly be pointed out that the Prince of Wales received 
a very remarkable number of gifts during his tour in India. The 
cost of a gift made to the Prince of Wales by a native Prince was 
supposed to be strictly limited to ^^2000 in value, but in many cases 
this restriction was evaded by the present being priced at a nominal 
sum, the real value being anything from ^5000 to _^30,ooo. As 
an actual fact the splendid collection brought home by the Prince, 
which is his own personal property, is said to be worth half a million 
sterling. 

Some time after his return home His Royal Highness kindly 
allowed his Indian gifts to be exhibited to the public. They are 
now scattered over Marlborough House and Sandringham, a con- 
siderable portion of them finding a permanent resting-place in the 
Indian room of Marlborough House. There also are carefully 
stored away in solid silver cylinders all the addresses received by the 
Prince during his eventful Indian tour. 

The Prince, who takes the very keenest interest in live animals, 
brought back quite a menagerie with him from India, and the portion 
of the Serapis assigned to His Royal Highness's pets was for the 
time being a veritable Zoo, for there were tigers, elephants, ostriches, 
leopards, birds, ponies, cattle, monkeys, dogs and horses, some of 
which are still spending a peaceful old age at Sandringham. 

There can be no doubt that from a political point of view the 
Prince's tour was a great success, doing much indirectly to 
consolidate the British power in India. It is also a curious 
commentary on the objections raised by the economy party to 
the visit that no less a sum than ^^ 2 50,000 was spent in London 
alone by native Princes in buying presents for His Royal Highness. 

The principal incident of the voyage home had been a farewell 
dinner given by the officers of the Serapis to the Prince of Wales 
and his suite when the vessel was nearing harbour. 



io8 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

The table was laid for forty on the main deck (called the 
Windsor Long Walk), which was decorated with flags, trophies 
of arms, and ornaments. After the Oueen had been honoured. 
Captain Glyn proposed the Prince's health and begged him to 
accept an album as a keepsake from himself and his officers. It 
contained, besides a large photograph of every officer, photographed 
groups of the men and the Guard of Honour, views of different 
parts of the ship, and photographs of a few favourite animals. 

The real popularity of the Prince's visit to India was significantly 
proved by the popular demonstrations which awaited him on his 
return. Enthusiastic greetings of welcome hailed him in the 
evening both at Victoria Station and in his drive round by 
Grosvenor Place, Piccadilly, and St. James's Street to meet the 
Queen at Buckingham Palace. The appearance of the Prince and 
Princess at the Royal Italian Opera in the evening, within two 
hours of their reaching home, was a particularly graceful act of 
consideration. Nothing could surpass the enthusiasm with which 
their Royal Highnesses were greeted when they were seen in the 
Royal box. 

During the days that followed, their Royal Highnesses received 
congratulatory visits from all the members of the Royal Family 
then in England, and from many distinguished personages. On 
the Sunday after the Prince's return. His Royal Highness, 
accompanied by the Princess, the Duke of Edinburgh, and the 
Duke of Connaught, attended divine service at Westminster Abbey 
in the afternoon, when special thanksgivings were offered up for 
the safe return of the Prince from India. 

Soon afterwards His Royal Highness was entertained at a 
banquet and ball given by the Corporation of the City of London 
at the Guildhall. The temporary building erected for this brilliant 
assembly, to which over five thousand were invited, occupied the 
whole of Guildhall Yard. The reception hall was on the basement 
floor, the ballroom being built above it, and was beautifully decorated 
and draped with Oriental hangings. A dais had been erected for 
their Royal Highnesses ; and the scene is described as a combination 
of quaintly mediaeval magnificence with modern luxury and elegance. 
The reception ceremony took place in the new library of the Guild- 



TOUR IN INDIA 



109 



hall, where an address of welcome in a golden casket of Indian 
design was presented to His Royal Highness by the Lord Mayor. 
The Prince, in a brief reply, said that it was his highest reward and 
his greatest pride to have received from the citizens of London and 




The Prince in 1876 

From a Draivmg by Sargent 

his countrymen such a welcome at the termination of a visit which 
had been undertaken with the view to strengthening the ties that 
bound India to our common country. The invitation tickets for 
this brilliant function were both beautiful and appropriate, the Star of 
India and the Taj Mahal at Agra figuring prominently in the design. 



no THE PRINCE OF WALES 

Among the other entertainments given in honour of the Prince's 
return may be mentioned a concert at the Albert Hall. The Prince 
and Princess on their arrival were received by a Guard of Honour 
of 1 20 bluejackets from the Serapis, the Raleigh, and the Oshorne, 
under the command of Captain Carr Glyn, and in the vestibule were 
all the Council of the Albert Hall, wearing the Windsor uniform. 
At their head was the Duke of Edinburgh in naval uniform. The 
vast hall was crowded with a distinguished audience. 



CHAPTER X 

QUIET YEARS OF PUBLIC WORK, 1 876-87 VISIT TO IRELAND 

THE queen's jubilee 

The year 1876 was marked, in addition to the Prince of Wales's 
return from India, by a curious example of His Royal Highness's 
tact and courage. The Prince consented to preside at the special 
Jubilee Festival of the Licensed Victuallers' Asylum, and this action 
aroused an extraordinary amount of feeling in temperance circles. 
Before the day of the festival the Prince of Wales received more than 
200 petitions from all over the kingdom begging him to withdraw 
his consent. His Royal Highness, however, attended the festival, 
and in his speech pointedly referred to his critics, urging that he 
was there, not to encourage the consumption of alcoholic liquors, 
but to support an excellent charity, which had enjoyed the 
patronage of his honoured father. 

It is interesting to note the manner in which the Prince of 
Wales always refers to his father, with whom he undoubtedly has far 
more in common than is generally supposed. Perhaps the most 
conspicuous taste shared by the father and the son is a really keen 
and personal interest in exhibitions of all kinds. This was probably 
first realised by those about him twenty years ago, when His Royal 
Highness accepted the onerous duties of Executive President of the 
British Commission of the Paris Exhibition of 1878. He threw 
himself with ardour into this work almost immediately after his 
return from India, and during a short visit which he paid to France 
in that spring he received a considerable number of official personages 
connected with the approaching exhibition. 

The Prince, accompanied by the Princess, unveiled in the following 



112 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

July a statue of Alfred the Great at Wantage, the birthplace of 
the famous King. The statue was the gift of Colonel Loyd- 
Lindsay (now Lord Wantage), the sculptor being Count Gleichen 
(Prince Victor of Hohenlohe-Langenburg). The Prince of Wales is 
a lineal descendant of King Alfred by the intermarriage of the 
Saxon with the Norman reigning houses in the eleventh century, and 
it was most appropriate that he should have been invited to perform 
the ceremony. 

In January 1878 the Prince of Wales, accompanied by Prince 
Louis Napoleon, visited the Duke of Hamilton at Hamilton Palace, 
in Lanarkshire. The Crown Prince of Austria was also a guest of 
His Grace at the time. The Prince greatly enjoyed this visit to the 
premier Peer of Scotland, who is of the ancient lineage of Scottish 
Royalty. The Royal visitors enjoyed some excellent sport in the 
historic Cadzow Forest — Cadyow having been granted by King 
Robert the Bruce after the battle of Bannockburn to Sir Gilbert 
Hamilton, the ancestor of the present Duke. Here still remain the 
few old oaks of the once great Caledonian Forest, immortalised by 
Sir Walter Scott in his ballad of " Cadyow Castle " ; and here are 
also the wild white bulls of the same breed as preserved at Chilling- 
ham, and the famous Cadzow herd of wild cattle. The Royal 
visitors were deeply interested in all that was to be seen here, and 
greatly enjoyed their visit. 

This year of 1878, so brilliant in Paris, brought to the British 
Royal family a bereavement which can only be compared for its 
suddenness and bitterness with the death of the Prince Consort. 
The Grand Duchess of Hesse (Princess Alice), after nursing her 
children through a malignant diphtheria, herself fell a victim to the 
same dread disease on the very anniversary of her father's death. 
The blow fell with peculiar severity on the Prince and Princess of 
Wales, with whom Princess Alice had been united in the bonds of 
the closest affection, especially since the Prince's illness, in which 
she had proved herself so devoted a nurse. The link between the 
Royal brother and sister is significantly shown by the fact that 
Princess Alice never visited England without paying long visits at 
Sandringham or at Marlborough House. The Prince of Wales was 
one of the chief mourners at the funeral in Darmstadt. 



QUIET YEARS OF PUBLIC WORK 113 

After this blow the Prince and Princess of Wales naturally 




The Prince in 1879 

From a Portrait by Angeli, published by Henry Granjes and Co. 

remained for some months in the deepest retirement. A new grief 
was, however, in store for them — the tragic death in the following 

I 



114 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

June of the young Prince Imperial, in whose career the Prince of 
Wales had always taken a warm and almost paternal interest. His 
Royal Highness was among the very first in this country to be 
informed of the terrible news, and he was of the greatest assistance 
to the stricken Empress Eugenie in making the complicated arrange- 
ments for the funeral. His active sympathy, and the announcement 
that the heir to the British Crown intended to be the principal pall- 
bearer of Napoleon III.'s ill-fated son, aroused much comment on 
the Continent, and gave great satisfaction to Frenchmen of all shades 
of political opinion. On a beautiful wreath of violets which was 
sent from Marlborough House for the funeral at Chislehurst were 
the words, written in the Princess of Wales's own hand : — 

" A token of affection and regard for him who lived the most 

spotless of lives and died a soldier's death fighting for our cause in 

Zululand. 

"From Albert Edward and Alexandra, 

July 12, 1879." 

The Prince of Wales strongly supported the movement for 
erecting a memorial to the Prince Imperial in Westminster Abbey, 
and subscribed _^ 1 30 to the fund which was raised for that object. 
The opposition to the scheme was, however, so strong that it fell to 
the ground. That the Prince's feelings were not modified in any 
way is shown by the fact that early in January 1883, His Royal 
Highness, accompanied by his two sons. Prince Albert Victor and 
Prince George, with the Duke of Edinburgh and the Duke of 
Cambridge, unveiled a monument to the Prince Imperial at 
Woolwich. This " United Service Memorial " was erected by a 
subscription raised throughout all ranks of the Army, Navy, Royal 
Marines, Militia, Yeomanry, and Volunteers, and Count Gleichen 
was the sculptor. The Prince of Wales, in a speech at the 
unveiling, commended the virtues, the blameless life, the courage, 
and obedience to orders manifested by the Prince, as a bright 
example to young men entering the Military Academy, and 
remarked that it was only a natural impulse which prompted his 
desire to join his English comrades in the war in South Africa, in 
which he fell fighting for the Queen of England. 



QUIET YEARS OF PUBLIC WORK 115 

In view of Princess Louise of Wales's subsequent marriage it 
is interesting to record that in the autumn of 1880 the Prince of 
Wales, accompanied by Prince Leopold and Prince John of 
Glucksburg, visited the Earl of Fife at Mar Lodge. On the 
evening of their arrival Lord Fife gave a grand ball, at which his 
distinguished visitors were present. The entertainment included a 
torchlight procession and dance by the DufF Highlanders. The 
party also enjoyed some deer-stalking in the Forest of Mar. 

An incident worth recording occurred in January 1881, during 
a visit of the Prince and Princess of Wales to Normanton Park. 
Her Royal Highness drove with Lady Aveland to Oakham, and 
paid a visit to the ancient castle, on the inner walls of which are 
nailed numerous horse-shoes, the gift, or rather the toll, of various 
Royal and noble personages. A large horse-shoe of steel, perfect 
in shape and of elegant workmanship, had been made for the 
Princess to offer. Her Royal Highness examined the other horse- 
shoes in the Castle hall, and chose the position in which she desired 
her toll to be affixed, namely, over a large one supposed to have 
been the gift of Queen Elizabeth. The Princess greatly enjoyed 
following this ancient custom, a mark of territorial power possessed 
for many centuries by the Ferrers family, a shoe from the horse of 
every princely traveller who passed that way being a tax due to the 
Ferrers or Farriers. Among the horse-shoes specially noticed by 
the Princess of Wales were one contributed by the Queen when 
Princess Victoria, on 2nd September 1833 ; another by the Duchess 
of Kent on the same date ; also one offered by the Prince Regent, 
afterwards George IV., on yth January 18 14. 

It was in this year that the Prince of Wales had an opportunity 
of exhibiting in a public manner his strong interest in the British 
Colonies, the welfare of which was not then so much a matter of 
concern in the eyes of our statesmen as it is now. The occasion 
was a dinner given to the members of the Colonial Institute by the 
then Lord Mayor, Sir George MacArthur, himself an old colonist. 
An extraordinary number of distinguished men connected in various 
ways, official and other, with our colonies were present. In his 
speech the Prince of Wales pointed out that no function of the kind 
had ever taken place before — a statement which seems hardly credible 



ii6 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

nowadays, thanks in a great measure to His Royal Highness's 
own unwearied exertions in the interests of our colonial empire. 
The Prince also alluded to his Canadian tour, and took the 
opportunity of paying a graceful compliment to his friend Sir John 
Macdonald, who was present. 

Very shortly after this dinner the Prince of Wales attended as 
patron the first meeting ever held in this country of the International 
Medical Congress, 

The Prince of Wales was deeply grieved at the death of Dean 
Stanley, with whom, as we have seen, he had been on terms of close 
intimacy. At a meeting held in the Chapter-House of Westminster 
Abbey, His Royal Highness paid a touching and eloquent tribute 
to his dead friend's rare qualities, both of heart and intellect. 

Generally speaking, this period of the Prince of Wales's life 
was not very eventful. His children were still quite young, and 
his public appearances, though tolerably frequent, did not usually 
possess more than a local importance. There were, however, some 
conspicuous exceptions, which broke the even current of the Prince's 
life. For example, it would be difficult to overestimate the value 
of the work which His Royal Highness did in promoting the 
International Fisheries Exhibition in 1883, which was visited by 
nearly three million people, and may be said to have been the first 
introduction into London of open-air entertainment on a large scale. 
Moreover, it resulted in a clear profit of _^ 15,000, of which two- 
thirds was devoted to the relief of the orphan families of fishermen. 

The success of the Fisheries suggested to the Prince the idea of 
another exhibition concerned with health and hygiene, which was 
held in 1884, and was nicknamed the " Healtheries." Not long 
before it was opened the Prince and Princess of Wales suffered a 
great bereavement in the death of the Duke of Albany, to whom 
the Prince had always been very much attached. He died quite 
suddenly in the south of France on 28th March, and the Prince of 
Wales instantly started for the Riviera and brought his brother's 
remains back to Windsor. In the following July, His Royal 
Highness, presiding at the festival of the Railway Guards' Friendly 
Society, took the opportunity of his first appearance at a public 
dinner to express in the name of the Queen and the Royal Family 



QUIET YEARS OF PtJBLIC WORK 



117 



their thanks for the public sympathy shown on the death of the 
Duke of Albany. 

In August of this year was celebrated the jubilee of the abolition 
of slavery throughout the British dominions. The Prince of Wales 
attended a meeting at the Mansion-House and delivered a long and 




The Prince in 1882 

From the Painting by H. J. Brooks^ published by Henry Gra-ves and Co. 

elaborate speech, evidently the result ot much painstaking study, in 
which he reviewed the whole history of the anti-slavery movement. 

The news of the fall of Khartoum came as a terrible shock 
to the Prince of Wales, who had long watched with increasing 
interest the career of General Gordon. Indeed, General Gordon 
had always been one of the Prince of Wales's great heroes, and it 



ii8 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

was chiefly owing to His Royal Highness's initiative that a fund 
was established for providing a national memorial to the hero of 
Khartoum, At the first meeting of the committee the Prince made 
a touching speech, in which he said of Gordon — 

" His career as a soldier, as a philanthropist, and as a Christian 
is a matter of history. . , . Many would wish for some fine statue, 
some fine monument, but we who know what Gordon was feel con- 
vinced that were he living nothing would be more distasteful person- 
ally than that any memorial should be erected in the shape of a 
statue or of any great monument. His tastes were so simple 
and we all know he was anxious that his name should not be 
brought prominently before the public, though in every act of his 
life that name was brought, I am inclined to think, as prominently 
before the nation as that of any soldier or any great Englishman 
whom we know of at the present time." 

It is well known that it was His Royal Highness's suggestion 
that a hospital and sanatorium should be founded in Egypt open to 
persons of all nationalities. The Princess was present at the 
special service held in St. Paul's on 13th March, the day of public 
mourning for the loss of General Gordon, 

Three days later the Prince of Wales, accompanied by his eldest 
son, presided at a meeting of the Royal Colonial Institute, and spoke 
of the personal as well as of the political interest he took in 
everything that concerned the colonies. On the next day Prince 
Albert Victor was initiated as a Freemason in the presence of a large 
and most distinguished company, his father, the Prince of Wales, 
receiving the Royal apprentice in his quality of Worshipful Master 
of the Royal Alpha Lodge, On the following day the Prince of 
Wales, Prince Albert Victor, and the Duke of Edinburgh went to 
Berlin to congratulate the aged Emperor William on his 8 8th birthday. 

It had been decided, not without the most anxious consideration, 
that the Prince and Princess of Wales, accompanied by their eldest 
son, should pay a visit to Ireland. The announcement was received 
with the greatest excitement both in Ireland and in America. 

United Ireland, the chief organ of the Nationalist party, then 
edited by Mr. William O'Brien, and said to be largely written by 
Mr. T. M. Healy, brought out a special number devoted entirely to 



VISIT TO IRELAND 119 

expressions of opinion from eminent Irishmen of all kinds on the 
Prince's visit. Every Nationalist Member of Parliament, every 




The Princess of Wales in her Robes as Doctor of Music 

From a Photograph by Chancellor, Dublin 

prominent ecclesiastic, in a word, every Irishman of conspicuous 
Nationalist views, was invited to say what he thought of the forth- 
coming Royal visit. The answers filled a copious supplement, and 



I20 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

their tenour was one of unanimous disapproval, expressed in some 
cases strongly, and in others in terms of studied moderation. Almost 
all the letters agreed in counselling an attitude of absolute indifference 
to the visit, but abstention from any kind of display of hostility to the 
Prince himself was insisted on ; and it was openly said that the part 
which His Royal Highness was playing in this pageant was a more 
or less passive one. This, perhaps, showed more than anything else 
that has occurred during the Prince's life the personal liking and 
respect in which he is held. 

It may be added that when the Prince and Princess arrived early 
in April 1885 the Nationalist party made no sign, but as there was 
naturally a great display of rejoicing on the part of the Anti- 
nationalist citizens, the Press, perhaps unfortunately, chose to regard 
this reception as a proof that the Home Rulers were wholly dis- 
credited. The Nationalist leaders therefore made up their minds 
that it was necessary to make some protest against the Royal progress 
as an answer to these taunts, and accordingly from Mallow till the 
Royal party left Ireland they were the victims of some very unpleasing 
demonstrations, and at Cork collisions occurred between the pohce 
and the mob, though no serious injuries were reported on either side. 

The Colonial and Indian Exhibition, called for short the 
" Colinderies," may be said to have been the most successful of all 
those with which the Prince of Wales was intimately associated. It 
was opened by the Queen on 4th May 1886, and Her Majesty was 
received by the Prince and Princess of Wales, His Royal Highness 
conducting her to the dais. In the Royal Albert Hall, where the 
opening ceremony took place, everything was done to make the scene 
as impressive and interesting as possible ; and at the special desire of 
the Prince, Lord Tennyson wrote an Ode for the occasion, which 
was set to music by Sir Arthur Sullivan and sung by Madame Albani 
in the choir. This exhibition resulted in a net surplus of _^3 5,000. 

In September some correspondence between the Prince of Wales 
and the Lord Mayor, suggesting the establishment of a Colonial and 
Indian -Institute to commemorate the Queen's Jubilee, was published, 
and excited a great deal of interest both at home and in the Colonies. 
A public subscription was opened at the Mansion-House ; and later 
in the same month His Royal Highness, having been informed that 



THE QUEEN'S JUBILEE 121 

a movement was on foot to present him with a testimonial in re- 
cognition of his services in connection with the Colonial and Indian 
Exhibition, wrote to request that any fund subscribed might be 
devoted to the furtherance of the Imperial Institute, and a great deal 
of his time that autumn was dedicated to this scheme. 

The Prince of Wales in 1886 also extended his patronage to two 
great engineering achievements, by opening the Mersey Tunnel and 
by laying the first stone of the Tower Bridge. It is interesting to 
note in this connection that the Prince has long been an honorary 
member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, and when he attended 
their annual dinner in the same year, he made an amusing speech, in 
which he attempted to picture what sort of a world ours would be 
without engineers. 

One of the busiest years ever spent by the Prince and Princess of 
Wales was 1887, when the Queen's Jubilee was celebrated. To His 
Royal Highness was left the responsibility of a great number of the 
arrangements, and on him fell almost entirely the reception and 
entertainment of the foreign Royal personages who attended the 
splendid ceremony in the Abbey as the Queen's guests. In many 
cases the Prince was obliged to welcome in person the Royal visitor 
to London, and he was indefatigable in his efforts to make every- 
thing go off as smoothly and successfully as possible, while it need 
hardly be said that he took a very prominent part next to the Queen 
in all the Jubilee functions. 



CHAPTER XI 

SILVER WEDDING OF THE PRINCE AND PRINCESS OF WALES 

ENGAGEMENT AND MARRIAGE OF PRINCESS LOUISE OF WALES 

Considerable preparations were made early in 1888 for the Silver 
Wedding of the Prince and Princess of Wales, but it was well 
known that the Royal family were expecting daily to hear of the 
death of the old German Emperor, William L, which actually 
occurred just before the Prince and Princess of Wales's Silver Wed- 
ding Day, and everything in the way of public rejoicing was counter- 
manded. Still the I oth of March was not allowed to pass entirely 
unobserved. The whole of the Royal family then in England, pre- 
ceded by the Queen, called at Marlborough House to offer their 
congratulations in person, and for that one day the Court mourning 
was abandoned. The Prince and Princess of Wales with their 
family lunched at Buckingham Palace with the Queen, while in the 
evening Her Majesty attended a family dinner-party at Marlborough 
House, this being the first time she had ever been to dinner with 
the Prince and Princess in London. The Queen, after leaving 
Marlborough House, drove through some of the principal West End 
streets in order to see the illuminations. Her Majesty also gave a 
State ball at Buckingham Palace in honour of the event, and the 
King and Queen of Denmark gave a grand ball at the Amalienborg 
Palace at Copenhagen. 

Archbishop Magee (then Bishop of Peterborough) writes in a 
letter to his intimate friend and biographer, Canon MacDonnell, the 
following amusing account of his share in the rejoicings : — 



THE PRINCE'S SILVER WEDDING 123 

"Athen^um Club, ilth March 1888. 

" Did you ever in your eminently respectable life dance on the 
tight rope ? And did you ever do so in the presence of Royalty ? 
No ? Then I have beaten you. 

" For I have this day performed that exceedingly difficult feat, 
and dead beat do I feel after it. I suppose you saw (for it was 
announced in all the papers) that H.R.H. was to worship at White- 
hall with all his family, to keep his silver wedding, and that the 
Bishop of Peterborough was to preach. Not an easy thing to do, 
under any circumstances, to preach to Royalty in a pew opposite 
you, and also to a large middle-class congregation on a special 
occasion. But only think of having to add to this a special allusion 
to the late Emperor of Germany's death, and the present Emperor's 
condition, and all this within the space of forty minutes, the utmost 
length that it is considered good taste to inflict on H.R.H. Add 
to this that he specially requested an offertory for the Gordon Boys' 
Home, and of course implied some reference in the sermon to this. 
So that I had, within forty minutes, to preach a charity sermon, a 
wedding sermon, and a funeral one. Match me that if you can for 
difficulty. . . ." 

In the unavoidable absence of the Bishop of London, Dean of 
the Chapels-Royal, the Archbishop of Canterbury was present, His 
Grace finally receiving the alms and giving the benediction. On 
the desk in the Royal Closet, in front of the Princess, was placed 
a beautiful bouquet of lilies of the valley, the emblem of the See 
and Province of Canterbury. The Princess quitted the chapel 
carrying the bouquet. 

An enormous number of presents testified to the wide affection 
and respect in which the Royal couple were held. The Prince gave 
his wife a cross of diamonds and rubies, her favourite jewels ; and 
from St. Petersburg, as a joint gift of the Emperor and Empress of 
Russia, came a superb necklace of the same gems composed of care- 
fully selected stones. The five children of the Princess gave her a 
silver model of " Viva," her favourite mare. The Princess's eight 
bridesmaids, who were all alive and all married, gave the Royal bride 



124 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

of 1863 their autographs bound up in a silver book enshrined in a 
silver casket of Danish work. 

The Freemasons of Great Britain presented Her Royal Highness 
with a very splendid diamond butterfly. The members of the Body- 
Guard were represented by a silver statue of a member of the corps, 
arrayed in the uniform originally designed by the Prince Consort. 
The .Comte de Paris sent a large agate punch-bowl, studded with 
precious stones. Among the public gifts which afforded the Prince 
and Princess most pleasure was the Colonial Silver Wedding gift — 
a silver candelabrum adapted for electric light, and a fine twenty-one 
day movement clock to match. The Colonies became very en- 
thusiastic over this gift, and more than ^2000 was subscribed in 
small sums. 

The King and Queen of Denmark gave a silver-gilt tea and 
coffee service ; the Crown Prince and Princess of Denmark, a 
valuable vase of Danish china ; the Empress Eugenie, a silver model 
of a two-masted ship of the time of Henry VIII. ; and the King of 
the Belgians, a large silver tankard and a collection of the choicest 
exotics from the gardens at Laeken. The Austrian Ambassador 
presented an autograph letter from the Emperor Francis Joseph 
announcing that the Prince of Wales had been appointed to the 
Honorary Colonelcy of the 12th Hussar Regiment in the Austro- 
Hungarian Army. The French Ambassador was also received in 
audience and offered their Royal Highnesses an expression of good 
wishes on the part of the President of the French Republic and the 
French Government. 

The presents received by the Prince and Princess were arranged 
in the Indian Room at Marlborough House, A prominent position 
was accorded to a gift from the Queen — a massive silver flagon of 
goodly height and proportions, the counterpart of one in the Kremlin. 
One corner of the Indian Room was filled with floral gifts, bouquets, 
wreaths, pyramids of lilies of the valley, and rich and rare exotics, 
sent by all classes of the community from all parts of the country 
and from the Continent. 

In strong contrast to these rejoicings was the deep shadow thrown 
over the Prince of Wales and his family by the serious illness of the 
Emperor Frederick. All the arrangements of the Prince and Princess 



ENGAGEMENT OF PRINCESS LOUISE 



125 



were naturally dependent on the news received almost hourly from 
the sick-chamber at Potsdam, but even in the midst of his terrible 
anxieties the Prince did not disappoint the loyal citizens of Glasgow, 
whose Exhibition he had promised to open, and who gave him a 
right Royal welcome. At length the long-dreaded blow fell. On 
14th June the Emperor Frederick breathed his last after a reign of 
99 days. 

The following year was notable for the first break in the Prince's 




The Duchess of Fife and the Princesses Victoria and Maud 

From a Photograph by Lafayette 

own family circle caused by marriage. But before the engagement 
of Princess Louise of Wales to the Earl of Fife was publicly 
announced, the Queen paid one of her necessarily rare visits to 
Sandringham, spending altogether four days there. While there 
Her Majesty witnessed a performance of The Bells and of The 
Merchant of Venice, given by Sir Henry Irving and the members 
of the Lyceum Company. The Prince's tenants presented an 
address of welcome to his Royal mother, to which Her Majesty 
gave the following gracious reply : — 



126 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

" It has given me great pleasure to receive your loyal address, 
and I thank you sincerely for the terms in which you welcome me to 
Sandringham, and for the kind expressions which you have used 
towards the Prince and Princess of Wales. After the anxious time 
I spent here seventeen years ago, when, by the blessing of God, my 
dear son was spared to me and to the nation, it is indeed a pleasure 
to find myself here again, among cheerful homes and cheerful faces, 
and to see the kind feeling which exists between a good landlord 
and a good tenant ; and I trust that this mutual attachment and 
esteem may long continue to make you happy and prosperous, and 
to strengthen, if possible, the affection of the Prince and Princess of 
Wales for the tenants of Sandringham." 

Although Great Britain was not officially represented at the 
Paris Centennial Exhibition of this year, the Prince of Wales once 
more showed his friendship with France by going over with the 
Princess in sQm\-incognito. Their Royal Highnesses carefully 
inspected the whole Exhibition, paying special attention to the 
British section, and finished by ascending the Eiffel Tower. 

Princess Louise's engagement was made public in the spring, 
and though it aroused almost as much surprise as satisfaction among 
the general public, yet those who were really in a position to know 
regarded it as the most natural thing in the world. Lord Fife had 
for years been admitted to the close intimacy of the Prince's family 
circle. His was the only bachelor's house at which the Princess 
of Wales had ever been entertained, he had long been a frequent 
and welcome guest at Sandringham, and when he took the oath 
and his seat in the House of Lords the Prince of Wales had paid 
him the rare honour of appearing as one of his introducers. 
Although rumours of the betrothal of the Prince's eldest daughter 
to various foreign Princes had for some time been rife. His Royal 
Highness had made no secret of the special importance which he 
attached to her marriage, for at that time it appeared by no means 
impossible that the Princess herself or her children might one day 
sit on the British throne. In these circumstances a foreign marriage 
of the particular kind which then seemed intrinsically probable 
would have been frankly unpopular with the British people, who 
would have pictured themselves as being perhaps one day reduced to 



THE DUKE AND DUCHESS OF FIFE 



127 



bringing back their Queen, now wholly Germanised, from some 
obscure Grand Duchy. 

The Prince of Wales on this occasion showed once more his 
intuitive sympathy with the feelings of his future subjects, for the 
news of the Royal engagement was received with an absolutely 




The Duke of Fife 

From a Photograph by the London Stereoscopic Co. 

unforced outburst of popular enthusiasm, the more so when it 
became known that it was entirely a love match. 

The Prince and Princess of Wales with their three daughters 
went to Windsor on 27th June and visited the Queen, when Her 
Majesty formally gave her consent to the engagement. On the 
receipt of the news at Marlborough House the fact was at once 
communicated to the Household, and the Marquis of Salisbury also 



128 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

was officially informed. The Earl of Fife was received by Her 
Majesty the same evening at Windsor Castle. In the House of 
Commons a Message from the Queen formally announced the 
intended marriage, and the First Lord of the Treasury gave 
notice of a motion to grant a suitable provision for the Royal bride, 
though owing to the great wealth of the bridegroom this was 
perhaps less necessary than it had been on the occasion of other 
Royal marriages. 

The Earl of Fife (Alexander William George Duff), Baron 
Skene of Skene, Viscount Macduff, and Baron Braco of Kilbryde, 
County Cavan, was the only son of James, fifth Earl of Fife, and 
of the Countess of Fife, who was Lady Agnes Georgiana Elizabeth 
Hay, daughter of the Earl of Erroll. He was born on loth November 
1849, and was educated at Eton. He succeeded his father in 
the Scotch and Irish honours on 7th August 1879, and was created 
an Earl of the United Kingdom in 1885. He sat as Viscount 
Macduff in the House of Commons from 1874 to 1879 as Liberal 
member for Elgin and Nairn. Lord Fife, who is one of the largest 
landed proprietors in Scotland, owning extensive estates in Elgin, 
Banff, and Aberdeen, was created Duke of Fife and Marquis of 
Macduff in the peerage of the United Kingdom, on his wedding 
day, 27th July, having declined to take the title of Duke of Inverness. 

The wedding was celebrated in the Chapel at Buckingham Palace, 
in the presence of the Queen, the Prince and Princess of Wales, with 
their sons and two younger daughters, the King of the Hellenes, the 
Crown Prince of Denmark, and the Grand Duke of Hesse. 

The King of the Hellenes has always been one of the favourite 
brothers-in-law of the Prince of Wales, and His Royal Highness 
and the Princess went to Athens in the autumn to attend the 
wedding of the Duke of Sparta and Princess Sophie of Germany. 

The following year was not very eventful. In March the Prince 
of Wales performed the ceremonies of finishing and opening the 
Forth Bridge in the presence of an illustrious assembly, including 
his son Prince George, the Duke of Edinburgh, who had travelled 
from Russia on purpose, the Duke of Fife, and the Earl of Rosebery, 
who was the host of their Royal Highnesses at Dalmeny. The 
last rivet, which the Prince fixed, is on the outside of the railway, and 



THE FORTH BRIDGE 129 

holds together three plates. Around its gilded top there runs a com- 
memorative inscription. At the hour appointed for the formal 
declaration of the opening of the bridge, the wind was blowing 
so violently that it was impossible for His Royal Highness to make a 
speech. He simply said, " Ladies and Gentlemen, I now declare the 
Forth Bridge open." 

It was in March, also, that the Prince of Wales and Prince 
George attended a Chapter of the Order of the Black Eagle in 
Berlin, at which Prince George was invested with the insignia 
of the Order. Subsequently their Royal Highnesses took part in the 
Ordensfest. 



K 



CHAPTER XII 

THE BACCARAT CASE BIRTH OF LADY ALEXANDRA DUFF THE 

PRINCE OF WALEs's FIFTIETH BIRTHDAY ILLNESS OF PRINCE 

GEORGE OF WALES 

During the winter of 1890 various rumours had been rife as to a 
cause celebre in which the Prince of Wales was to be called as a 
witness. These reports proved to have had substantial foundation 
in the following spring, when Sir William Gordon -Gumming, a 
cavalry officer of good family, who had distinguished himself in the 
Egyptian campaign, and was understood to enjoy the personal 
friendship of the Prince of Wales, brought an action for slander 
against five defendants — Mrs. Arthur Wilson, Mrs. A. S. Wilson, 
Mr. and Mrs. Lycett Green, and Mr. Berkeley Levett — who had 
accused him of cheating at baccarat at Tranby Croft, the Wilsons* 
place near Hull. 

The trial opened early in June before Lord Chief Justice 
Coleridge, and the Prince of Wales was accommodated with a seat 
on the bench. The Court throughout wore the air of a theatre 
rather than of a Court of Justice, the bench and both the galleries 
being filled with ladies, who used their opera-glasses with freedom 
to discover the notabilities in Court, and to watch Sir William 
Gordon-Cumming under examination. The great counsel of the 
day were engaged. Sir Edward Clarke (Solicitor- General), with 
Mr. C. F. Gill as his junior, conducted the case for Sir William Gordon- 
Cumming ; and Sir Charles Russell (now Lord Chief Justice), with 
Mr. Asquith, appeared for the defendants, the Attorney-General 
having withdrawn from the case. 

The Solicitor-General made a speech of singular power and 



THE BACCARAT CASE 131 

skill on behalf of his client. The point of the defence was that 
Sir William Gordon-Cumming — who was accused of the trick 
known as la poussette^ by which a player at baccarat increases his 
stake after he sees that the cards are in his favour or the coup has 
been declared — had simply been playing on a system. This theory 
Sir William supported in the witness-box with great steadiness, and 
though his cross-examination was most severe, he maintained that 
on no occasion had he wrongfully increased the stake. When the 
cross-examiner came to a document which the plaintiff had signed, 
practically admitting his guilt, and which had been witnessed by 
the Prince of Wales, Sir William's explanation was, in effect, that 
he was hopeless of convincing those round him of his innocence, and 
that he desired for his own sake and that of others to avoid a scandal. 

The Prince of Wales stepped into the box and was sworn in the 
ordinary way on the second day. Sir Edward Clarke addressed him 
as "Sir" and " Your Royal Highness," and Sir Charles Russell did 
the same. The Prince gave his evidence with much frankness, but 
it was largely of a formal character. His Royal Highness, however, 
said that at the time when, as banker, he questioned Sir William 
Gordon-Cumming on the largeness of his winnings, he did not 
think he had been cheating ; but he added, in cross-examination by 
Sir Charles Russell, that in advising Sir William Gordon-Cumming 
to sign the document, he considered he had been acting most 
leniently. 

As the Prince was leaving the witness-box an amusing incident 
occurred. A juryman rose from the back of the jury-box, and 
with naif frankness put two important questions — whether the 
Prince had ever seen Sir William Gordon-Cumming cheating, and 
whether he believed him to be guilty. In reply to the first question 
the Prince answered that the banker would not be in a position to 
see foul play, and that among friends it would not be expected ; and 
to the second he replied that. Sir William's accusers being so 
numerous, he could not but believe them. Having elicited these 
very important facts, the little juryman sat down, and the Prince 
stepped out of the box with a smile and a bow. 

The Prince's evidence was followed by that of General Owen 
Williams, who, with Lord Coventry, drew up the document signed 



132 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

by the plaintiff. General Williams made two important statements 
— that he believed Sir William guilty, and that the Prince had 
objected to his placing his hands on the table in such a way that 
the counters could not properly be seen. In the course of the 
evidence it came out that the stakes played for on the two evenings 
were not large, but that Sir William won in all £12 c^, which was 
paid him by cheque and which he retained. 

The trial lasted seven days, and on 9th June the jury, after ten 
minutes' deliberation, returned a verdict for the defendants. 

The most extraordinary interest was taken in the case, both in 
this country and on the Continent and in America, no doubt chiefly 
owing to the Prince of Wales's connection with it. A Prince of 
Wales has rarely been called as a witness in a case, although, of 
course, in the theory of English law, all men are equal, and the 
privileges, if any, which would attach to His Royal Highness would 
not attach to him in his capacity as Prince of Wales or Heir-Apparent 
to the Throne, but simply in his capacity as a peer of the United 
Kingdom. 

It was pointed out by many that the conduct attributed to Sir 
William Gordon-Cumming was obviously not that of an officer and 
a gentleman, and in the House of Commons a week after the trial 
the Secretary of State for War expressed the regret of the Prince of 
Wales that he had not required Sir William to submit his case to 
the Commander-in-Chief. 

The Prince of Wales became a grandfather tor the first time this 
spring, for on 1 7th May the Duchess of Fife gave birth to a daughter 
at East Sheen Lodge. The question was immediately raised whether 
the infant should take Royal rank as a Princess of the Blood. When 
Sir William Beechey painted his portrait of Princess Victoria, the 
distance between the Duke of Kent's little daughter and the throne 
was as great as or even greater than that of the little daughter of the 
Princess Louise at her birth. It was ultimately settled, in accord- 
ance with the wishes, it was understood, of both the Prince of Wales 
and the Duke of Fife, that the infant should simply take the rank and 
precedence of a Duke's daughter and be called Lady Alexandra Duff. 

The child was christened on 29th June in the Chapel-Royal, St. 
James's. The Queen came to London to act as sponsor to her great- 



II 



THE PRINCE'S FIFTIETH BIRTHDAY 133 

granddaughter, and the Prince and Princess of Wales were joint 
sponsors for their grandchild. The Archbishop of Canterbury 
administered the rite of baptism. The Princess of Wales took the 
child from the nurse and placed her in the arms of the Queen, who 
gave the names of Alexandra Victoria Alberta Edwina Louise. 

This autumn the Prince of Wales celebrated his fiftieth birthday, 
and it was computed that in his half-century of existence His Royal 
Highness must have been prayed for aloud in Anglican churches 
alone at least a hundred million times. The Prince's birthday is 
generally celebrated by him at home with his family, and he receives 
each year a large collection of interesting and valuable gifts from 
abroad. Few people are aware that the Prince of Wales and the 
Due de Chartres were both born on the same day, the one in 1841 
and the other in 1842. For many years it has been their custom to 
exchange presents on the 9th of each November. Occasionally that 
sent by His Royal Highness will be a peculiarly British gift, such 
as a fine rifle with all the latest improvements, the French Duke 
giving in return some valuable piece of French masculine jewellery, 
which one year took the form of a large gold cigar-case, superbly 
chased. The Princess of Wales and her daughters often give His 
Royal Highness a joint gift for his birthday. Among his valued 
treasures is a splendid album, each leaf of which is illuminated by a 
water-colour sketch by the Princess, the album being filled with 
photographs taken by the owner's three daughters. On the Prince's 
fiftieth birthday the theatrical managers of London presented a magni- 
ficent gold cigar-box, weighing 100 ounces, to His Royal Highness. 

The month of December has been one of peculiar ill-omen to 
the Royal family, and it seemed as if December 1891 was to prove 
no exception. For the Princess of Wales and her daughters, who 
had been to Livadia on a visit to the Tsar, were recalled by the ill- 
ness of Prince George of Wales, and the Prince and Princess went 
through some days of terrible anxiety. As soon as Prince George 
was declared to be suffering from enteric fever he was removed from 
Sandringham to London, and it was there that he was nursed. The 
illness evoked a remarkable degree of public sympathy, though 
perhaps the serious nature of the Prince's condition was hardly 
reahsed till all danger was practically over. 



CHAPTER Xm 

THE DUKE OF CLARENCE AND AVONDALE 

The year 1892 opened auspiciously both for the Royal family and 
the nation, inasmuch as, immediately on the convalescence! of the 
Duke of York, the engagement of his elder brother, the Duke'^of 
Clarence and Avondale, to Princess Victoria Mary of Teck was 
announced. The projected alliance was received with every possible 
expression of popular approval. The public career of the Duke of 
Clarence, short as it had been, had already confirmed him in the 
public estimation as a worthy son of his father, who was known to 
have actively superintended the whole course of his education. A 
significant proof of the young Prince's amiability and unpretending 
modesty was to be found in the large number of personal friends 
whom he attached to himself, both at Cambridge and among his 
comrades of the 10th Hussars, by ties of sincere esteem. Moreover, 
it was generally known that between the Duke of Clarence and his 
mother there existed the strongest possible link of filial and maternal 
love, and so the Prince came to share in a measure the high place 
which the Princess of Wales has always held in the hearts of the 
British people. 

The circumstances of the mournful event which threw a gloom ' 
over the whole winter of 1892 are still fresh in the memory of the 
nation. On 9th January the Duke of Clarence, who was spending 
the Christmas holidays with his parents at Sandringham, was 
attacked with influenza, having caught cold at the funeral of Prince 
Victor of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. Notwithstanding the devoted 
care lavished on him, his death occurred on the 14th, within a week 
of the day on which the tidings of his illness had first gone forth. 




The Duke of Clarence 

From a Photograph by Chancellor, Dublin 



136 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

Then, if ever, the Prince and Princess of Wales must have realised 
the respect and affection with which they are regarded by the British 
people. Their Royal Highnesses received the most touching letters 
from all over the world. One of those they most valued was from 
the Zulu chiefs at St. Helena. This was conveyed to the Prince 
through Miss Colenso, and ran as follows : — 

" We have heard of the death of Prince Edward, the son of the 
Prince of Wales. We lament sincerely. Pray you present our 
lamentation to them all — to his grandmother, to his father and his 
mother, and his brother." 

Their Royal Highnesses showed how deeply they appreciated 
the sympathy so spontaneously offered to them on every side by 
publishing the following Message : — 

"Windsor Castle, zotb January 1892. 

" The Prince and Princess of Wales are anxious to express to 
Her Majesty's subjects, whether in the United Kingdom, in the 
Colonies, or in India, the sense of their deep gratitude for the 
universal feeling of sympathy manifested towards them at a time 
when they are overwhelmed by the terrible calamity which they 
have sustained in the loss of their beloved eldest son. If sympathy 
at such a moment is of any avail, the remembrance that their grief 
has been shared by all classes will be a lasting consolation to their 
sorrowing hearts, and if possible will make them more than ever 
attached to their dear country." 

On the Sunday following the death of the Duke, a private 
service was held in Sandringham Church, attended by the Prince 
and Princess, their daughters, Princess Victoria Mary of Teck, and 
Prince George. By the Prince of Wales's special wish his eldest 
son was given the simplest of military funerals, and the coffin was 
removed from Sandringham to Windsor on a gun-carriage, escorted 
by a number of the Prince's old comrades in arms. On the coffin 
lay the Prince's busby and a silken Union Jack, and even at 
Windsor, where among the impressive mass of mourners every 
Royal House was represented, everything was severely simple, and 
the pall-bearers were officers of the loth Hussars. 

The career of the Prince, so suddenly cut off ere he had well 



THE DUKE OF CLARENCE AND AVONDALE 137 

reached his prime, in addition to its historical interest, throws an 
instructive hght upon the pains which the Prince of Wales has 
always expended on the education and training of his children. On 
none of his children did the Prince of Wales bestow more loving 
thought and care than on his eldest son, who was destined, as it then 
seemed, one day to bear all the anxieties and responsibilities of the 
British Crown. 

The education of the young Prince was conceived and carried out 
upon a definite and well-considered plan. From childhood he was 
devotedly attached to his younger brother. Prince George, who 
warmly reciprocated his affection, and their father wisely determined 
that the two boys should not be separated, but should enter the 
Royal Navy together as cadets. This was done in June 1877, 
Prince Albert Victor being then thirteen and a half and Prince 
George being some seventeen months younger. From the very first 
the Prince of Wales caused it to be understood that his sons were to 
enjoy no privileges on account of their rank, but were to be treated 
exactly like their fellow-cadets on board the Britannia, and made to 
learn their profession just as if they had been the sons of an ordinary 
private gentleman. The young Princes spent two years in the 
Britannia, and both obtained a first-class in seamanship, entitling 
them to three months' sea-time, and for general good conduct they 
obtained another three months. 

The Prince of Wales thoroughly realised the benefit he had him- 
self derived from the travels which he had undertaken as a youth, 
and therefore he arranged that his sons should spend three years 
in making a tour round the world, that their minds might be 
equipped by experience of men and cities, and that they might 
acquire an abiding impression of the extent and resources of the 
British Empire. Accordingly, the young Princes started in the 
Bacchante, being entrusted to the care of the Rev. J. N. Dalton, 
now Canon of Windsor. The Princes kept careful diaries, and 
on their return they published a most interesting and detailed 
account of their experiences. In the Bacchante, just as m the 
Britannia, they were treated exactly like other officers of their 
age and standing, except that they had a private cabin under the 
poop. They joined the gun-room mess, the members of which 



138 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

were granted a special allowance — an arrangement which had before 
been made when the Duke of Edinburgh began his naval career. 

On the return of the Princes from their tour it became at last 
necessary to separate them. Prince George, as the younger son, 
might be left to continue his career in the noble service to which he 
had become devoted, but his elder brother, being in the immediate 
succession to the Throne, must, it was felt, be associated, as his 
father had been before him, with other walks of national life as well. 

Accordingly, in 1883, the Prince of Wales accompanied Prince 
Albert Victor to Cambridge and saw him matriculated as an under- 
graduate member of Trinity College, that ancient and splendid 
foundation to which he himself belonged. It was at Cambridge 
that certain sterling qualities possessed by Prince Albert Victor first 
became manifest to any considerable circle, and through them to the 
public at large. His life at the University was simple and well 
ordered. He had not — nor was it desirable that he should have — 
the specialised intellect which wins University prizes and scholar- 
ships, but he displayed in a marked degree that peculiarly Royal 
quality of recognising intellect in others. Of those whom he 
admitted to his friendship while at Cambridge nearly all have 
become, or are becoming, distinguished in various walks of life. It 
must not be supposed that the Prince was idle at the University. 
On the contrary, he read for six or seven hours a day regularly — a 
good deal more than the average undergraduate can be persuaded to 
do — and he was in another respect intellectually ahead of most of 
his contemporaries, namely, in his familiar knowledge of modern 
languages. He had read German at Heidelberg with Professor 
Ihne, and he kept it up while at Cambridge with a German tutor. 
He spoke French easily and well, and he had also a literary know- 
ledge of that language, having spent some time in Switzerland with 
a French tutor. 

Prince Albert Victor strongly resembled his father in many 
respects, notably in his habits of order and method, and in his 
complete freedom from affectation or assumption. He was, indeed, 
if anything, almost too modest and retiring, but those who knew 
him bore witness to his real geniality and thoughtful consideration 
for others. At Cambridge he attended his College chapel twice on 




The Princess of Wales 

From a Photograph by Gunn and Stuart 



I40 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

Sundays, and once or twice during the week. He generally- 
dined in the College hall, when he would be assigned a place at the 
Fellows' table. He was fond, however, of giving little dinner- 
parties of six or eight in his own rooms in College, usually on 
Thursdays, his guests on these occasions often including some of 
the senior members of the University. After dinner, the Royal 
host would generally arrange a rubber or two of whist. He did 
not take part in cricket or football, but was fond of polo and 
hockey, and he occasionally hunted. He might often have been 
met in the neighbourhood of Cambridge riding in the company of 
a few of his undergraduate friends, to whom he liked to offer 
a mount, especially in cases where he knew it was needed. The 
Prince had an inherited love of music, and he attended pretty 
regularly some weekly concerts of chamber music given at the 
Cambridge Town Hall. One traditionally Royal quality the Prince 
possessed in an extraordinary degree, namely, a perfectly marvellous 
memory for names and faces. Indeed, his memory in general was 
singularly tenacious, and in his historical studies he exhibited a wonder- 
ful power of quickly mastering the most intricate genealogical tables. 

The Prince came of age in 1885, ^^^ ^^^ house-party at Sand- 
ringham given to celebrate the occasion was one of the largest 
gatherings ever held there. The company included a considerable 
number of Prince Albert Victor's Cambridge friends. 

On the conclusion of Prince Albert Victor's residence at 
Cambridge, the honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him, 
and then the Prince of Wales decided that it was time for his elder 
son to enter the army. He was accordingly gazetted a lieutenant in 
the loth Hussars, of which the Prince of Wales is colonel, and while 
he was quartered at Aldershot the father and son saw a great deal 
of each other. In the army, as in the navy. Prince Albert Victor 
was treated as far as possible exactly like his brother officers ; and 
indeed it is highly probable that, had he been offered any exceptional 
privileges, he would have steadily refused to take advantage of 
them. The Prince became a captain in the 9th Lancers and in the 
3rd King's Royal Rifles and aide-de-camp to the Queen in 1887, 
and two years later attained the rank of major, returning to his 
old regiment, the loth Hussars. 



THE DUKE OF CLARENCE AND AVONDALE 141 

The Prince of Wales retained such pleasant recollections of his 
own visit to India, that he determined that his elder son should at an 
early date make a tour in the Queen's great Eastern dependency. 
The tour was arranged, and proved extremely successful from every 
point of view. Prince Albert Victor was gazetted honorary colonel 
of the 4th Bengal Infantry, the ist Punjab Cavalry (Prince Albert 
Victor's Own), and the 4th Bombay Cavalry, 

Soon after his return from India, Prince Albert Victor was created 
Duke of Clarence and Avondale, and Earl of Athlone, in the peerage 
of the United Kingdom. He was formally introduced to the House 
of Lords by his father on 23rd January 1890, the ceremony 
being watched by the Princess of Wales from a gallery. This 
was an event unique in English history. The Duke of Clarence was 
the only eldest son of a Prince of Wales who attained his majority, 
to say nothing of taking his seat in the House of Lords, while his 
father was still Heir-Apparent to the Crown. 

During the year which followed, the Prince of Wales gave up 
regularly a certain portion of his time to initiating his elder son in 
all the varied, if monotonous, duties which were likely to fall to his 
lot, a task which was really in no wise irksome, for those who knew 
the Duke of Clarence best were well aware that his father had ever 
been his best friend, and that he himself was never so happy as when 
he was allowed to share in any sense his father's life and interests. 



CHAPTER XIV 

1893-1897 

After the death of the Duke of Clarence the Prince of Wales and 
his family naturally retired into the deepest privacy, and it was many 
months before His Royal Highness had sufficiently recovered from 
the blow to be able to take up again the thread of his public duties. 

The year 1893, however, brought to the Prince a very fortunate 
distraction, which prevented his mind from dwelling too much on 
his bereavement in a way that could not have been accomplished by 
the customary round of ceremonial visits and functions. This 
distraction was His Royal Highness's appointment as a member of 
the Royal Commission on the Housing of the Poor. The Prince 
was genuinely delighted with this opportunity. He threw himself 
with the greatest zeal into the work, and not only attended all the 
sittings, which took place in one of the House of Lords' Committee 
Rooms, but visited, incognito, some of the very poorest quarters of 
London. It is well known that he was exceedingly anxious to serve 
on the Labour Commission, but Her Majesty's Ministers have always 
been unwilling that the Heir-Apparent should take an active part in 
matters connected, even indirectly, with politics, and he has had there- 
fore constantly to play the part of the Queen's deputy without the 
responsibilities and interests naturally attaching to the position. 

It is no exaggeration to say that there are few men now living who 
possess better general qualifications for the difficult work of serving 
on Royal Commissions than the Prince of Wales. He is familiar 
with an almost bewildering variety of subjects, and possesses a 
wonderful faculty for almost instinctively grasping the important 
features and the really essential points of any matter under discussion. 




The Prince and Princess of Wales, with the Duchess of Fife and 
Lady Alexandra Duff 



From a Photograph by Gunn and Stuart 



144 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

He is a model chairman of a committee, and, though he cannot ever 
display the slightest trace of personal or party feeling, it is well 
known that he follows with intense interest all the political and social 
movements of the day, and it is no secret that he is thoroughly an 
Imperialist. 

The Prince's work on the Housing of the Poor Commission was 
particularly congenial to him, for he has always shown an unaffected 
interest in the working-classes. He has long been an annual sub- 
scriber to the Working-Men's Club and Institute Union, and is a 
generous donor to the Working-Men's College. On one occasion 
His Royal Highness was accidentally informed that an exhibition 
promoted by the working-men in South London was somewhat 
languishing for lack of sufficient notice, and unofficially the Prince 
arranged to visit the exhibition. He went through it carefully, 
buying and paying for such articles as took his fancy, and the 
moment the fact became known the promoters had no reason to 
complain of neglect on the part of the general public, who were 
eager to see what had interested the Prince of Wales. 

Throughout the year 1893 the Prince of Wales was busily 
employed in various ways. In March he paid a formal visit to the 
Public Record Office to inspect some of the priceless national manu- 
scripts deposited there, and in May he had the satisfaction of seeing 
that great enterprise which he had himself originated, the Imperial 
Institute, inaugurated in State by his Royal Mother. It was at the 
Institute that Mr. Gladstone was hissed by some unmannerly persons, 
to the great annoyance of the Prince, who has never concealed the 
strong respect and esteem in which he holds both Mr. and Mrs. 
Gladstone. 

It is interesting also to record that in March of this year the 
Princess of Wales, who was accompanied by the Duke of York, was 
received by the Pope in private audience. The interview lasted 
about an hour. 

The official announcement was made in May of the betrothal of 
the Duke of York and Princess May of Teck. On 6th July, after 
a very short engagement, the marriage took place in the Chapel-Royal, 
St. James's, in the presence of all the Royal family, as well as the 
present Emperor of Russia and the King and Queen of Denmark. The 



I 



I893-I897 



145 



Prince of Wales naturally took a prominent part in supervising all 
the arrangements, and was much gratified by the outburst of popular 




The Queen and the Duke and Duchess of York 

From a Photograph by Hughes and MiiUins, Ryde 

enthusiasm which greeted his son's union with the daughter of the 
universally-beloved Duchess of Teck. 



146 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

It is interesting to note how frequently, ever since the marriage, 
the Prince of Wales has associated the Duke of York with himself 
in the performance of his public duties, while the constant com- 
panionship of father and son, both in Norfolk and in London, is 
a striking testimony to their complete sympathy with one another. 

The following year was notable for two Royal marriages in the 
Prince of Wales's immediate circle, and for a bereavement which 
touched both the Prince and Princess in their closest family affections. 
His Royal Highness went to Coburg in April to be present at the 
wedding of his niece, Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and 
Gotha, and his nephew, the Grand Duke of Hesse, the only son of 
the lamented Princess Alice. The occasion brought together a 
remarkable number of prominent members of Royal Houses, 
including the Queen and the German Emperor, and was rendered 
additionally memorable by the fact that the engagement of the 
present Tsar of Russia to the bridegroom's sister was then publicly 
announced. 

The Prince of Wales, who was on this occasion accompanied by 
the Princess, went to St. Petersburg in August for the wedding of 
the Grand Duchess Xenia, which was celebrated with all the lavish 
magnificence of Russian Court ceremonies. 

Although the Tsar was not then in his usual robust health, there 
was nothing to indicate how soon the Prince and Princess of Wales 
were to be recalled to Russia on a far different mission. To their 
lasting sorrow, the summons to the Tsar's death-bed at Livadia 
arrived too late for them to be present at the last. Their Royal 
Highnesses left London on 31st October, immediately on receipt of 
an urgent message from the Tsaritsa, and had proceeded as far 
as Vienna when the news was broken to them that all was over. 
They, however, continued their melancholy journey, which was 
much delayed by bad weather, in order that they might be with the 
widowed Empress and her son through the terrible strain of the 
return to St. Petersburg, and the ordeal of the funeral ceremonies. 

The Prince of Wales's fifty-third birthday was spent at Livadia, 
and for the first time since his birth the anniversary celebrations in 
London and at Sandringham did not take place. 

When the funeral cortege reached St. Petersburg, the Duke of 



1893-1897 147 

York joined his parents, and together they attended the elaborate 
obsequies of the Emperor, and the very quiet wedding of the young 
Tsar and Princess Ahx of Hesse, which followed a few days later. 
The Prince of Wales remained in Russia for the Princess's birthday, 
and left with the Duke of York the following day, while Her Royal 
Highness stayed behind to support her sister, the Empress Alexander. 

The relations between England and Russia after the Prince's 
return became noticeably more cordial, and there is no doubt that 
this was owing in a large measure to His Royal Highness's personal 
exertions, and the sympathy which he and his son displayed with the 
Russian people in their great sorrow. 

During this year of 1894 the Prince of Wales exhibited his usual 
complaisance in attending various local ceremonies. Among these 
may be mentioned the opening of the Tower Bridge by the Prince 
and Princess, on behalf of the Queen, in June ; while in July their 
Royal Highnesses attended the Welsh Eisteddfod at Carnarvon, 
where they were received with great enthusiasm, A special session 
was held, at which the Prince of Wales was initiated as " lorweth 
Dywysog" (Edward the Prince), the Princess of Wales as " Hoffder 
Prydain" (Britain's Delight), and the Princess Victoria of Wales as 
"Buddug" (the modern Welsh form of Boadicea). 

The Prince of Wales is always willing to emphasise his connec- 
tion with the Principality from which he takes his title, and when the 
long-desired University of Wales became an accomplished fact, he 
readily consented to be its first Chancellor. His Royal Highness 
was installed in this office at Aberystwith in June 1896, and his 
first act as Chancellor was to confer an honorary degree on the 
Princess. At the luncheon which followed, the Prince's health was 
proposed by Mr, Gladstone. 

In the following month, the marriage of Princess Maud of 
Wales to Prince Charles of Denmark took place in the chapel of 
Buckingham Palace in the presence of the Queen and the Royal 
families of the two countries. 

The Prince of Wales, for a variety of reasons, took a much 
greater part in the Jubilee festivities of 1897 than he did in those 
of ten years before. All the arrangements were submitted for his 
.approval as well as the Queen's, and it was largely owing to his 



148 



THE PRINCE OF WALES 



conspicuous organising ability that everything went off with such 
triumphant success. Both the Prince and Princess associated them- 
selves in a special manner with the occasion, the former by his 




The Prince in Admiral's Undress Uniform 

From a Photograph taken in 1897 by AduHins, Ryde 

Hospital Fund for London, and the latter by her thoughtful scheme 
of providing one good dinner for the very poorest. The Hospital 
Fund greatly benefited by the sale of a special stamp, the design of 
which was selected by the Prince himself. 



1893-1897 H9 

The Prince of Wales, who is an Admiral of the Fleet, repre- 
sented the Queen at the magnificent naval review at Spithead, which 
was generally agreed to be, in its way, the finest spectacle of all that 
the Jubilee festivities afforded. Many foreign warships were sent by 
other countries as tokens of international courtesy. Towards the 
officers of these vessels the Prince of Wales displayed all his wonted 
cordiality ; and in the arrangements for their entertainment his efforts 
were heartily seconded by Mr. Goschen, the First Lord of the 
Admiralty, and the other naval authorities. The spectacle of so 
vast a concourse of British vessels was rendered doubly impressive 
by the knowledge that it had been assembled without weakening in 
the slightest degree the squadrons on the numerous British naval 
stations all over the world. There was much point in the remark 
said to have been made by the United States Special Ambassador to 
Mr. Goschen : "I guess, sir, this makes for peace ! " 

On the eventful morning of the 22nd June, when the Jubilee 
honours were announced, it was found that the Queen, while con- 
ferring some mark of her favour on each of her sons, had created a 
new and special dignity for the Prince of Wales. The announce- 
ment was made in the following terms : — 

" The Queen has been graciously pleased, on the occasion of Her 
Majesty's Diamond Jubilee, to appoint Field-Marshal His Royal 
Highness the Prince of Wales, K.G., G.C.B., to be Great Master 
and Principal Knight Grand Cross of the Most Honourable Order 
of the Bath." 

That this distinction was very gratifying to His Royal Highness 
was significantly shown in the following month, when he gave a great 
banquet at St. James's Palace to the Knights Grand Cross of the 
Order of the Bath in celebration of his appointment. It was an 
absolutely unique gathering of men who had rendered distinguished 
service to the State, in statesmanship, in diplomacy, in the profession 
of arms, in the navy, and in the departments of civil administration. 

The rest of the Diamond Jubilee year was spent in comparative 
quietude by the Prince and Princess of Wales, although His Royal 
Highness took an active part in the exceptionally brilliant season. 
He attended, among other great functions, the Fancy Dress Ball 
given by the Duchess of Devonshire, wearing on this occasion the 



I50 



THE PRINCE OF WALES 



splendid costume of the Grand Master of the Knights-Hospitallers 
of Malta. 

During the summer the Prince made a sojourn at Marienbad, 
deserting Homburg for the first time for some years. 




The Prince as Grand Master of the Knights -Hospitallers of Malta, 
AT the Duchess of Devonshire's Ball 

From a Photograph by Lafayette 

This summer was also rendered memorable for the visit paid 
by the Duke and Duchess of York to Ireland. Their Royal High- 
nesses spent a fortnight there, stopping with the Lord-Lieutenant, 
Earl Cadogan, in Dublin ; afterwards visiting some of the great 



1893-1897 151 

houses of the Irish nobility, and seeing a great deal of the lovely 
scenery for which Ireland is famous, including Killarney, from which 
the Duke of York takes the title of Baron. 




The Duke of York in his Robes as a Knight of St. Patrick 

From a Photograph by Lafayette 

In Dublin the Duke of York and the ever-popular Lord Roberts 
were installed with great pomp and ceremony as Knights of the Order 
of St. Patrick. The Duke wore the same sword which his father 
had used when he was installed some three-and-twenty years before. 



152 



THE PRINCE OF WALES 



This Royal visit to Ireland exhibited in a striking manner the 
extent to which party passions had been allayed in the distressful 
country. The Duke and Duchess of York had everywhere a 




The Duchess of York 

Fro7}i a Photograph by Chancellor, Dublh 



respectful and frequently an enthusiastic reception ; and in almost 
every address received by their Royal Highnesses the desirability of 
establishing a Royal residence in Ireland was pointedly referred to. 



1893-1897 153 

The profound effect of the visit was seen a month or two later, 
when, on the death of the lamented Duchess of Teck, the Lord 
Mayor and Lady Mayoress of Dublin telegraphed their condolences, 
toth officially and privately, not to the Duke of Teck, as might 
have been expected, but to the Duke and Duchess of York. On 
this mournful occasion, also, the Corporation of " rebel " Cork 
passed a resolution of sympathy. 

As has been so singularly often the case, the autumn brought 
yet another bereavement to the Royal family in the entirely un- 
expected death of Princess Mary, Duchess of Teck. The Princess, 
who stood in the relation of second cousin to the Prince of Wales, 
was, although belonging technically to the same generation as the 
^ueen, but a few years older than His Royal Highness, and the 
most affectionate and close relations had always existed between 
them, a fact shown on many occasions throughout their joint lives, 
and nowhere more strikingly than in the great satisfaction expressed 
by both the Prince and Princess of Wales at the marriage of their 
only surviving son to the daughter of the Duke and Duchess 
of Teck. 

Earlier in the autumn an attempt was made to use the Prince of 
Wales's great personal prestige and popularity in order to bring to a 
close the struggle between masters and men in the engineering 
trade. The writer received the following reply : — 

" Marlborough House, Pall Mall, S.W., 
%th October 1897. 

"Dear Sir — 1 am directed by the Prince of Wales to acknow- 
ledge the receipt of your letter of the 4th inst., and to inform you, in 
reply, that, while he deeply deplores the disastrous state of affairs in 
the engineering industry, he feels that it would not be right or proper 
for him to attempt in any way to interfere or to mix himself up in 
them. His Royal Highness regrets that he is unable to act on your 
suggestion. — I am, Sir, your obedient servant, 

" Francis Knollys," 



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The Norwich Gate at Sandringham 

Photograph bf Ralph, Dersingham 

CHAPTER XV 



SANDRINGHAM 

When the Prince of Wales was about to set up a separate 
establishment, the Queen and the Prince Consort instructed some of 
their most trusted friends to look out for a suitable country estate 
for the Heir-Apparent. At one moment it was proposed to buy 
Newstead Abbey, but its Byronic associations caused it to be 
purchased as soon as it came into the market. Eynsham, in Oxford- 
shire, an estate belonging to Lord Macclesfield, also came under 
consideration, as also Elveden, in Suffolk, and Hatherop, in 
Gloucestershire. Lord Palmerston seems to have suggested 
Sandringham, which at that time belonged to his stepson, Mr. 
Spencer Cowper, and accordingly the Norfolk estate was bought for 

j^220,000. 

The estate consisted of eight thousand acres, the nominal rental 
being about _^70oo a year, but everything about Sandringham was 
at that time in very bad order. The house was small and dilapidated. 



SANDRINGHAM 155 

and the shooting and outlying portions of the estate had been 
utterly neglected. It is said that the whole rental has been 
expended on the property during the last thirty-five years, and a 
very considerable sum has also been spent on the new house, the 
new gardens, the park, and the home farms. Every kind of im- 
provement has been carried out, gradually but steadily, and now it 
may be considered a model estate from every point of view. One 
of the first institutions set up by His Royal Highness was an admir- 
able village club, entirely built at the Prince's own expense. The 
regulations enforced are based on what is called Dr. Arnold's system, 
and give the maximum of freedom to the members. 

On one occasion, when speaking of himself at a meeting of the 
Royal Benevolent Institution, His Royal Highness said, " I think I 
may style myself a colleague of many of you present as a farmer on 
a small scale, and I only hope that I may never have occasion to 
be a pensioner of this institution. It is impossible for any British 
gentleman to live at his country place without taking an interest in 
agriculture, and in all those things which concern the farmers of this 
great country." 

The Prince has always been a very keen competitor at the 
various national and local shows, and he takes his duties as President 
of the Royal Agricultural Society very seriously. All the Norfolk 
shows, from the flower show to the poultry show, are patronised by 
both their Royal Highnesses ; and in this, as in so many other 
matters, the Squire of Sandringham sets an excellent example to 
those round him. The Allotments Act was practically anticipated 
by the Prince of Wales at Sandringham. Indeed the tenants of His 
Royal Highness are well aware that he interprets very generously any 
Act telling in their favour. 

The old mansion, which was small and inconvenient, was pulled 
down, and the present house was erected on a more suitable site, from 
the designs of Mr. Humbert. The work was not completed till 
1 87 1. The new mansion is a very pretty gabled building, and 
though commodious enough for the Prince's requirements, it will 
not compare in point of size with many of the " stately homes of 
England." On the inner wall of the vestibule, above the hall door, is 
set a tablet bearing, in Old English characters, the inscription : " This 



156 



THE PRINCE OF WALES 



house was built by Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, and Alexandra, 
his wife, in the year of Our Lord, 1870." 

The Royal host and hostess, as well as their family and their 
guests, spend much of their time in the great hall, a really beautiful 
apartment, with a lofty ceiling of open oak work. Many family 
souvenirs are gathered here, including a fine painting of the Princess 
of Wales's birthplace, portraits of the King and Queen of Denmark, 
two miniature cannon, which were given by Napoleon III. to the 
Prince of Wales and to his sister, the Princess Royal, and a number 




The East Front, Sandringham 

Photograph by Ralph, Dersingham 

of family portraits and photographs. Facing the main entrance is 
the head of a wild bull, belonging to the famous Chillingham herd, 
which was shot by the Prince in 1872. Underneath are Sir Walter 
Scott's lines : — 

Fierce on the hunter's quiver'd band 

He rolls his eyes of swarthy glow, 
Spurns with black hoof and horn the sand, 

And tosses high his mane of snow. 

To those who study the Prince of Wales's personal nature 
and character, no apartment in Sandringham can be more interest- 
ing than the library, or rather that section of the libraries, for 



SANDRINGHAM 157 

there are three, which is the special concern of His Royal Highness. 
The fittings are those of the cabins used by the Prince on board 
the Serapis during his voyage to and from India. The blotting- 
books and the tables and chairs are all covered in dark blue or green 
leather, and on each the Prince's plumes and monogram are stamped 
in gold. A glance at the shelves shows what are our future King's 
literary tastes and preferences. He is evidently intensely interested 
in the history of his own country, especially what may be called 
the history of our own time. Several shelves are entirely devoted to 
works dealing with the Indian Mutiny, including the official reports, 
memoirs, histories, and even novels. The Prince always buys every 
now work connected with the public or private administration of the 
Queen's Eastern Empire. Special attention has also evidently been 
paid to the Crimean War, and the Prince possesses a unique collection 
of Colonial histories and documents. But most of the standard 
works of reference are to be found in the first library, a fine apart- 
ment, often used as a writing-room and reading-room by visitors. 

The second library is really the Equerries' room. It is there 
the Gentlemen of the Household are often to be found. Here 
are collected together the French and English works of reference 
and classics, and a unique collection of county histories. Novels and 
memoirs are not neglected, and no week passes, when the Prince 
and Princess are in residence, without a large consignment of 
British and foreign books finding its way to Sandringham. 

Another room which is much used by His Royal Highness is 
the smoking-room. There each day are placed all the newspapers, 
including files of most of the leading dailies. In this room are 
preserved many splendid cigar-cases and tobacco-boxes presented 
to the Prince at various times by his friends and relations. Some 
of them are veritable works of art. As is well known, the Prince of 
Wales has always been a smoker. His brother-in-law, the late Tsar 
of Russia, always sent His Royal Highness each Christmas a cabinet 
of cigars, and the Emperor of Austria is represented by a case 
of Havanas of various sizes and qualities. These gifts are placed, 
immediately on their arrival, in a special room, which is kept at an 
even temperature all the year round. 

The Prince has a very remarkable collection of silver cigar- 



158 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

lighters, but these are kept at Marlborough House. A stock of 
the Prince's own special tobacco is kept at the Marlborough Club, 
at the Jockey Club Rooms at Newmarket, at the Royal Yacht 
Squadron Club-House, and on board all the Royal yachts. He is 
always willing to share his exceptionally good stock of cigars with 
those with whom he is brought in contact. On one occasion, when 
attending a big lire. His Royal Highness asked a reporter for some 




Sandringham from the Grounds 

Photograph by Ralph, Deriingham 

details, which were instantly given. At the conclusion of the 
conversation, the Prince offered his informant a cigar, which the 
latter immediately wrapped up in a page of his note-book and 
placed in his pocket. " Don't you smoke ? " asked the Prince. 
*' Oh yes," said the reporter ; " but I am not likely ever to get 
another cigar from the Prince of Wales." The Prince laughed, and 
once more producing his cigar-case said, " You had better have 
another one, this time to smoke." 



SANDRINGHAM 159 

The Prince of Wales transacts much of the business connected 
with the Sandringham estate in a pleasant morning-room. There 
he receives at stated times the bailiffs and others concerned in the 
management of the estate, and, as he farms himself over 1000 acres, 
he has much to do in the way of supervision. 

Sandringham can boast of one of the finest private billiard-rooms 
in England, and it is one of the very few country-houses where 
there are bowling alleys. The Prince and his children are very 
fond of the old-fashioned English game of bowls. 

In 1 891 the entire roofing of the main building of Sandringham 
House, together with all the rooms and their contents on the two 
upper floors, was destroyed by fire. The bells of the various 
churches in the district clashed out the alarm. Gangs of men and 
women speedily set to work to clear the principal lower rooms of 
their furniture and rare, valuable, and interesting contents. The 
Princess of Wales was stopping with the Empress of Russia, the 
Prince was also away at the time. The amount of damage done 
was about £ 1 5,000. That portion of the house which was destroyed 
has been rebuilt in a thoroughly fire-proof fashion, with iron and 
concrete floors and roofs ; and the opportunity was taken of making 
many additions to various portions of the house, in fact, about 
eighteen rooms were added. It was very characteristic of the Prince 
of Wales that, by his orders, the general works were all carried out 
by local tradesmen. 

One of the most interesting departments of Sandringham Hall is 
the stables, which contain a great number of carriages. There are 
Russian sledges, only used in the coldest weather ; a Hungarian 
snow-carriage, lined with rose colour ; Norwegian carioles ; a smart 
American buggy, painted bright yellow ; a truly beautiful gold inlaid 
jinricksha, sent to His Royal Highness from Japan, which is for 
show rather than for use ; a char-a-banc, presented by the late 
Duke of Sutherland to the Prince ; and, it need hardly be said, every 
kind of ordinary two- and four-wheeled vehicle now in general use, 
from the modest Norfolk cart to the stately landau ; while by the 
big coach is to be seen the charming miniature four-in-hand presented 
by His Royal Highness to the Princess just before his departure for 
India. 



i6o 



THE PRINCE OF WALES 



Both the Prince and Princess are passionately fond of horses, 
and Her Royal Highness pays a daily visit to her pony-stable, 
which was built in 1874 for her four French ponies, now replaced 
by equally valuable animals of British extraction. Bina, Merry- 
Antics, Bow, and Bell are the fortunate occupants of this model 
pony-stable, which is considered the prettiest building of the kind in 
the world, the walls being lined with white tiles, picked out in green 
glazed bricks, finished at the top by a green-tiled frieze and an open 
wooden roof. Above each manger is written in gold letters the 




The Princess's Dairy at Sandringham 

Fhotograph by Ralph, DersingJiam 



name of the pony which occupies the stall. The Princess at one 
time was very fond of driving tandem, and she has one of the best 
tandem teams in Great Britain. 

But the Princess does not only confine her attention to ponies ; 
she is very fond of bay horses, and possesses a pair of the famous 
greys bred in the Imperial stables at Leipzig. For many years Her 
Royal Highness always rode Kinsky, a Hungarian horse ; and she 
was said to be one of the best horsewomen in Norfolk. 

The saddle-room is not the least fascinating portion of the stable- 
yard. Much of the harness is silver and gold-plated. The Princess 
has always preferred brown harness to black, and all that used by 
her is made in tan leather, with brass mounts. 



SANDRINGHAM 



i6i 



There are a number of interesting photographs and paintings, 
including a picture in oils of a very beautiful chestnut mare, Victoria, 
long ridden by the Princess, and given to her when she was a bride 
by the Queen. Below this portrait of a departed favourite is one of 
her hoofs mounted in silver, with the name of the owner written 
across. There are some valuable prints of celebrated trainers and 
jockeys, with some of the latter's whips, spurs, and caps. A 




The Kennels, Sandringham 

Photograph by T. Fall, Baker Street, W. 

" Vanity Fair " cartoon of the Prince, surrounded by a number of 
his friends at Newmarket, is also given a prominent place in the 
Sandringham saddle-room ; and not the least interesting memento 
now there is Mr. John Porter's silver-wedding gift to his Royal 
patrons. In a silver frame, surmounted by the Prince of Wales's 
feathers, is a white velvet tablet with the name " Ormonde " woven 
from the famous race-horse's hair. The border contains pieces of 
the hair of thirty-three famous winners, the name of each being in 
silver letters beneath. Close by is to be seen the racing-saddle 
generally used by Fred Archer. 

M 



l62 



THE PRINCE OF WALES 



Parallel with the stables runs the building known as the kennels. 
At one time, in the paddock between the stables and the kennels, 
there was a bear-pit, but the occupant thereof was sent to the Zoo 
after the Prince's valued head-keeper, Mr. Jackson, had been hunted 
by Bruin just when he was about to feed him with some peculiarly 




The Princess with her favourite Dogs 

Photograph by T. Fall, Baka- Street, W. 

bearish delicacy. This corner of Sandringham is by no means con- 
fined to horses and dogs. Here also are kept some of the Princess's 
pet cats ; a number of doves descended from the single pair presented 
to Her Royal Highness during her first visit to Ireland ; her 
Australian pigeons, quite unlike the more humble home variety ; a 
Barbary dove belonging to the Duchess of York ; and some very 



SANDRINGHAM 163 

fine water-fowl, to say nothing of Cockie, the Princess of Wales's 
cockatoo, who is said to be over a hundred years old. 

The kennels are, in their way, quite as fine as the stables. They 
are very cleverly arranged, all fitted with hot-water pipes, and admir- 
ably ventilated. The dogs are exercised in the park, in three 
paddocks in front of the kennels, or in a large yard paved with red, 
blue, and brick tiles. All the food consumed in the kennels comes 
from special kitchens attached to the building. There is also a dog 
hospital and a nursery, always occupied by one or more litters. 

The Prince and Princess are both keen dog-fanciers, and they 
possess some of the very finest animals in the world. They both 
exhibit at the leading shows, and Her Royal Highness is the Patron 
of the Ladies' Kennel Association. 




Marlborough House from the South-west 

Photograph by Ralph, Dersingham 

CHAPTER XVI 



LIFE IN LONDON 



Although Marlborough House is not in so real a sense the 
" home " of the Prince of Wales and his family as Sandringham is, 
His Royal Highness is obliged by his position to spend so much of 
every year in London that the beautiful old Georgian house has 
become the centre of his social, philanthropic, and official life. 

Surprise has sometimes been expressed that the Prince of Wales 
has not long ago moved to one of the larger, and one would think 
more commodious, Royal residences in London, such as Bucking- 
ham, Kensington, or St. James's Palaces. But both their Royal 
Highnesses have so many associations, both of joy and sorrow, with 
Marlborough House, that they have preferred to remain there, in 



LIFE IN LONDON 165 

spite of its comparatively unpretending character. There is scarcely 
an object in the house which does not remind the Prince and 
Princess of some happy incident of their joint lives. The very 
carpet which is down in the drawing-room was presented to them 
on the occasion of their wedding ; and the Prince's great interest in 
everything that concerns the history of the country and of the 
Empire is strikingly shown in each of his homes, for the rooms of 
both Marlborough House and Sandringham are lined with fine 
paintings and engravings recalling great events of the Victorian era. 

Although Marlborough House is the official residence of the 
Heir-Apparent, it is considered a private house for taxation purposes, 
and the Prince pays over ^1000 a year in rates to St. Martin's 
parish. 

His Royal Highness's study at Marlborough House, where none 
but his intimates are admitted, looks like the room of a hard- 
working man of business. He works at an old-fashioned pedestal 
desk-table, exactly resembling the one used by his father. The desk 
portion of the table shuts with a spring, and can only be opened 
with a golden key, which the Prince always wears on his watch 
chain. This room, where the Prince spends much of his time, is 
panelled in walnut wood. 

When in London the Prince of Wales has but little time to 
spare, for almost every hour of his day is mapped out for him. 
First comes his private correspondence, which is very considerable. 
Then from ten to half-past ten is spent in talking over and dictating 
replies to the letters already sorted by Sir Francis Knollys. 
Immediately after, the Comptroller of the Household discusses with 
His Royal Highness the arrangements for the day. Often before 
lunch the Prince has to receive a deputation, or to act as chairman 
of some committee, frequently held in Marlborough House. 

Luncheon is served at 2.30, and the Prince and Princess often 
entertain parties of their relations who are up in town for the day, 
for their house is the only Royal establishment now kept up in 
town, with the exception of York House, where, however, the 
Duke and Duchess of York have only a comparatively small house- 
hold. Except when he is travelling, the Prince rarely has a free 
afternoon, for even on the rare occasions when he has not to visit 



i66 



THE PRINCE OF WALES 



some public institution, to lay a foundation-stone, or to declare a 
building open, and so on, there are endless social duties to which 
no one can attend but himself, such as weddings, race meetings, 
reviews, and receptions. There are certain public functions which 
are always attended by both the Prince and Princess — for example, 
the Horse Show at Islington, the Royal Military Tournament, and 
the trooping of the colour. 




Marlborough House : the Drawing-Room 

Photograph by Ralph, Ders'ingham 

The Prince of Wales gives each season a certain number of 
dinners which, though in no sense official functions, take the place of 
those which would in other circumstances be given at Court. Thus 
he very often entertains various members of the Opposition as well as 
of the Government. He also occasionally gives what may be called 
a diplomatic dinner, to which a number of the foreign Ambassadors 
and Ministers are invited. On many occasions splendid dinner- 
parties in honour of a foreign guest or Royal relation passing 



LIFE IN LONDON 167 

through town in strm-incognito have given some favoured members 
of London society an opportunity of making the acquaintance of 
a great foreign personage. When the Shahzada was in England 
the Prince and Princess of Wales gave a banquet in his honour, at 
which covers were laid for forty. On this occasion, curiously 
enough, the Prince's chief guest was not able to partake of any 
dish in the menu save one entitled riz a F Imperatrice. However, 
he had brought with him his own provisions. 

The dining - room in which great dinners are served at 
Marlborough House is a very fine apartment, containing a con- 
siderable number of their Royal Highnesses' wedding - presents. 
The Prince does not sit at the end of the table, as is usual in most 
houses, but in the middle seat opposite the buffet, his guests being 
on the right and left and opposite to him. Good taste reigns over 
all the arrangements. Thus the tablecloths are severely plain, 
though of the finest quality, and simply worked with the Royal 
arms, the rose, the thistle, and the shamrock, while the table- 
napkins are invariably folded into a small square to hold the bread, 
and never in the fancy shapes in vogue elsewhere. To each guest 
two forks, and no more, are provided, and these are placed prongs 
downwards. In addition, there are one large tablespoon and one 
large knife, for in no circumstances are two knives together given 
to any guest. A great many reasons have been assigned for 
this rule, but apparently no one has summoned up the courage to 
ask their Royal host and hostess. It has been asserted that His 
Royal Highness has the old-fashioned dislike to seeing knives in- 
advertently crossed. Small water-bottles are used, but the Princess 
holds to the Hanoverian habit of never having finger-bowls. 

The table decorations are quite old-fashioned, for their Royal 
Highnesses have remained very conservative in all their arrange- 
ments, but the flowers placed in the heavy old-world centre-piece are 
very beautiful, consisting often of roses and the rarest orchids. 
The menu cards are absolutely plain, with a narrow gold border and 
the Prince of Wales's crest. The menu is always printed in French, 
the courses being divided into a first and second service. 

The Prince of Wales has never concealed his great dislike to 
the immensely long fatiguing banquets which were in his youth 



1 68 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

the rule rather than the exception ; indeed, he may be said to have 
revolutionised the British dinner-party. At Marlborough House 
dinner begins at a quarter to nine, and is never allowed to last much 
over an hour. Occasionally during dinner soft music is played. 
The menu is always served a la Russe^ that is to say, nothing is 
carved in the dining-room. Certain dishes are constantly met with 
in the menu, notably genuine turtle-soup, venison when in season, 
champagne sorbet (a kind of French ice of which both the Prince 
and Princess are exceedingly fond), and various sorts of salads. 
The wines are all decanted, and the Prince's favourite champagne is 
an 1889 vintage. The dessert service generally used is Royal blue 
Sevres. 

All the catering is done in the house, and every dinner served is 
prepared under the direct supervision of the Prince of Wales's chef 
(the famous Menager), who has under him the comparatively small 
staff of two cooks, a confectioner, and ten kitchen-maids. But it 
is perhaps owing to this fact that there is no confusion in the 
Marlborough House kitchens, and that everything is done with 
celerity and perfect cleanliness. The kitchen department of 
Marlborough House is not without interest, for in addition to the 
two huge kitchens there are a number of supplementary rooms, where 
the different kinds of cookery from the soups to the confectionery 
are carried out. These are none too numerous, considering that in 
them the whole of the cooking is done, not only for the Prince and 
Princess of Wales, but also for the whole Household. Moreover, 
on the occasion of a garden party, the very ample refreshments 
provided in the long marquee on the lawn are entirely prepared " at 
home," and include, in addition to champagne, claret-cup, and so on, 
every kind of sandwich, and some half-dozen different ices. 

Some years ago the Prince was rarely seen, even at dinner at a 
private house, without his favourite valet Macdonald, the son of the 
Prince Consort's y'^^^r ,• and now, whenever the Prince dines out, one 
of his own servants invariably accompanies him and attends to him 
through the dinner, whether it is a public banquet or a private 
dinner-party. Indeed the Prince of Wales very rarely enjoys the 
luxury of being alone ; even when walking up St. James's Street, or 
turning into the Marlborough Club, he is almost invariably accom- 



LIFE IN LONDON 



i6( 



panied by one of his equerries ; and it need hardly be said that the 
most trustworthy detectives in the London pohce force are charged 
with the task of watching over his personal safety, for the appear- 
ance of no public personage is better known to the man in the street 




Garden Party at Marlborough House, July l88i 

Fi'om the " Illustrated London Ne%vs " 

than is that of the Prince ot Wales. Yet, strange to say, his life 
has never been once attempted. 

The Prince of Wales has always been an enthusiastic admirer of 
the stage, and his tastes are so catholic that they range from melo- 
drama at the Adelphi to grand opera at Covent Garden. When 
His Royal Highness has made up his mind that he would like to go 



lyo THE PRINCE OF WALES 

to the theatre, the Royal box is booked in the ordinary way of 
business, and charged to the Marlborough House account, the price 
not being increased from the ordinary library tariff. The only 
difference made in honour of the Royal family is that, if any other 
patron of the theatre has already engaged the Royal box, he is 
requested to waive his right. The Prince, however, is always 
reluctant that this should be done, and he generally requests his 
secretary to send a special note of thanks in his name. 

Both the Prince and Princess always desire to be treated exactly 
the same as if they belonged to the ordinary audience, and nothing 
annoys them more than that attention should be drawn to them by 
the playing of the National Anthem or " God bless the Prince of 
Wales." At one time the managers used to keep the curtain down 
till the Royal party arrived. His Royal Highness heard of this, and 
was so much annoyed at the thought of the inconvenience thus 
caused to the public that he gave strict orders that the curtain was 
never to be kept down beyond the advertised time on his account. 
On the other hand, he always makes a point of waiting till the final 
curtain has come down before rising to leave. The only occasions on 
which he ever breaks this courteous rule is when he goes to a theatre 
which has no private entrance. Then the Prince and Princess 
always anticipate the final curtain by two or three minutes, so 
that their departure may not disturb the carriage arrangements of the 
rest of the audience. 

London managers have reason to be grateful to the Prince of 
Wales, for whenever he has visited a theatre the booking sensibly 
increases, the more so that when His Royal Highness likes a play 
he goes again and again, and recommends it to all his friends. Even 
when he finds it impossible himself to attend the benefit of some 
well-known actor or actress, he always puts his name down for stalls 
or boxes to a substantial amount. 

At the opera the Prince occupies an " omnibus," a double box 
on the ground tier, the Royal box itself being on the tier above ; 
while the Princess has a box all to herself, where she is usually 
accompanied by one of her daughters. The Prmce is a great music- 
lover, and always watches the progress of the opera very keenly, 
ensconcing himself behind the red curtain of his box so that he 



LIFE IN LONDON 



171 



cannot well be seen, although he can survey the whole house through 
his lorgnette. He is often accompanied at the opera by the Earl 
of Lathom, whose long white beard is distinguishable anywhere ; 
and he never has ladies in his box, although during the entr'actes 
he often visits the Princess and his daughter in their box. 

His interest in the dramatic profession is unaffected and sincere. 
Some four years ago a very interesting theatrical dinner took place 




Marlborough House : the Salon 

Photograph by Ralph, Dersinghatn 

at Marlborough House, Sir Henry Irving, Sir Squire Bancroft, Mr. 
Hare, Mr. Kendal, Mr. Toole, Mr. Wyndham, Mr. Beerbohm 
Tree, Mr. Alexander, Mr. David James, Mr. Arthur Cecil, and 
Mr. William Farren being asked to meet the Duke of Fife, Sir 
Christopher Teesdale, Mr. Sala, Mr. Burnand, and Mr. Pinero. 

The Prince has always patronised the French plays when per- 
formed in London, and he is as popular with the French theatrical 
world as he is with the dramatic profession in London. 



172 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

The Prince was at one time very fond of taking a hansom in 
the streets of London, just like an ordinary person, and it is said 
that he always pays the driver half a sovereign whether the distance 
is long or short. His Royal Highness is patron of the Cabdrivers' 
Benevolent Association, and he takes a marked interest in these 
hard-worked and deserving servants of the public, never missing the 
annual meeting, at which, indeed, some of his best speeches have 
been delivered. 

It is hardly necessary to say that the Prince of Wales need never 
take a hansom except for his own amusement. The stables of 
Marlborough House form a most important section of His Royal 
Highness's London establishment. They cost over ^25,000, and 
are, from every point of view, models of what town stables ought to 
be. In the coach-houses are some interesting carriages. The State 
Coach, which is practically never used, is almost exactly like that 
which is kept at Buckingham Palace. A Russian sociable, lined 
with dark-blue morocco, was a gift from the late Tsar of Russia to 
the Princess of Wales, but it is considered too showy for the London 
streets, and Her Royal Highness prefers a light victoria, which is 
generally drawn by her two greys, Chelsea and Brief. The Prince's 
brougham, made by Hooper, is an exact facsimile of one which 
caught His Royal Highness's fancy in Paris many ,years ago. It is 
lined with dark blue, and is a natty unobtrusive-looking vehicle. 

During the season over forty men are employed in the stables, 
and, as all servants in the Prince of Wales's employment are eligible 
for a pension after ten years' service, the competition for vacancies 
on the staff is keen. Every animal in the stables is taken out every 
day for exercise. There are forty-five stalls and twelve loose boxes, 
the name of each horse being inscribed on an enamel tablet over his 
stall. In the harness-room is a curious collection of State harness 
and some old saddles, together with a valuable collection of whips, 
chased in gold and studded with gems. All the harness, however, 
actually used by their Royal Highnesses is very plain. 



CHAPTER XVII 



PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 



There is certainly no man in the whole of the British Empire 
about whom more widely different views have been, and are now, 
entertained than the Prince of Wales. His position as the Heir- 
Apparent of a Sovereign whom repeated bereavements have driven 
into retirement, which is, however, more apparent than real, has 
been an extremely delicate one. Nearly all his predecessors in the 
title of Prince of Wales played some part in politics, or interfered, 
not always successfully, in the affairs of State. But the idea of con- 
stitutional monarchy, which the Queen from the beginning placed 
before herself, is wholly inconsistent with such interference on the 
part of the Heir-Apparent, and His Royal Highness has most 
scrupulously carried out this theory of his own position. 

No political party has ever been able honestly to claim the 
Prince of Wales as an adherent, or even as a platonic sympathiser. 
On the other hand, not his most severe critics have ever accused him 
of apathy to British interests. In that higher sphere of patriotism, 
which rises superior to the din of party politics, he has in every 
possible way earned the title of the typical Englishman. 

The Prince of Wales has shown this superiority to party or 
sectional interests most conspicuously in his choice of those whom 
he has honoured with his regard and confidence. Among these, 
politicians are naturally numerous, but the Prince has always been 
most careful not to show favour to the men of one side rather than 
the other. Indeed, so delicate is his tact, that he is accustomed to 
distinguish those who happen at the moment not to be enjoying 
the sweets of office a little more, if anything, than those who are. 



174 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

So well understood is this aloofness of his from politics, that the 
Prince has been able to show on many occasions the esteem and 
even affection in which he holds both Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone. 
The only time the Prince and Princess of Wales have ever been 
photographed together with any conspicuous popular figure was with 
the aged statesman and his wife, though it need hardly be added that 
this signal proof of friendship was given after Mr. Gladstone's final 
retirement from politics. 

It would be wearisome to enumerate all the statesmen and 
politicians on whom the Prince of Wales has conferred various marks 
of his favour. Mention may, however, be made of Mr. Cecil 
Rhodes, for whom he entertains a strong admiration which he has 
never cared to conceal. Indeed, His Royal Highness showed 
such a marked interest in the famous African statesman that he 
removed his own name from the Travellers' Club when Mr. Rhodes 
was blackballed — a course which he has never seen fit to take in 
any other instance. His Royal Highness was naturally very much 
interested in the South African Committee, the earlier sittings 
of which he attended with great regularity. 

The political emancipation of the Jews in England evidently had 
the Prince of Wales's warm sympathy. It now seems a long time 
ago since the presence of His Royal Highness at the marriage of 
Mr. Leopold de Rothschild caused much satisfaction and some 
sensation in Jewish circles, for no British prince had visited a 
synagogue since 1809, when three of the Royal dukes were present 
at a Jewish service. The Rothschild family have long been among 
the Prince's personal friends, both in England and on the Continent, 
and among his intimates was the late Baron Hirsch, with whom 
he stayed in Austria, notwithstanding the intense anti-Semitic feel- 
ing obtaining at the Austrian Court. The Prince of Wales has 
thoroughly studied the question of the Russian Jews, and has 
interested himself on their behalf in such a way as should earn for 
him the gratitude of every Jew in Europe and America. Neverthe- 
less, the Prince's predilection for the Chosen People has been some- 
times misinterpreted, and ascribed to not very creditable motives. 
People were at one time fond of saying that the Prince was up to 
the neck in debt, but, on the question being directly asked, Sir 




The Prince of Wales as Colonel of the i8th Hussars 

From a Photograph by F.G.O.S., published by Gregory 



176 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

Francis Knollys, the private secretary of the Prince, replied that 
the Prince had no debts worth speaking of, and that he could pay 
any moment every farthing he owed ; also, that there was not a 
word of truth in the oft-repeated tales of the mortgage on Sandring- 
ham, and that the whole story was a fabrication, and was on a par 
with similar tales representing the Prince as being assisted by 
financiers of more or less doubtful honesty. 

For Americans the Prince of Wales has also shown a strong 
liking, but it is false to assert that his favour has been confined to 
those American men and women whose social position has been 
entirely purchased by their wealth. He has frequently gone out of 
his way to show special courtesy to really distinguished American 
visitors, whether rich or poor ; and the diplomatic representative of 
the United States in London has always found a specially cordial 
welcome at Marlborough House. This was particularly the case 
with James Russell Lowell and with Mr. T. F. Bayard. Indeed, it 
will be remembered that on Mr. Bayard's giving up the post of 
American Ambassador, the Prince broke his invariable rule and 
accepted Mr. Bayard's invitation to dinner, thereby paying a signal 
compliment to the whole American people. The Prince's telegram 
to the New York Worlds during the war -scare which followed 
President Cleveland's Venezuelan Message, will be remembered as 
having done much to calm the public anxiety in both countries. 

American women who have married Englishmen can rely on 
receiving from the Prince and Princess of Wales the most tactful 
consideration and courtesy. This has been conspicuously shown in 
the cases of Lady Harcourt, the daughter of Motley, the great 
American historian ; of Mrs. Joseph Chamberlain ; and of the young 
Duchess of Marlborough. 

The Prince of Wales has not been so often painted as his 
Imperial nephew, the German Emperor ; in fact, he has a very great 
objection to sitting for his portrait. The latest portrait of him, 
however, was painted by Mr. Julian Story, as a commission from 
Mr. Astor, in order to commemorate the visit of the Prince to 
Clieveden. The portrait, which is life size, now hangs in the billiard- 
room at Clieveden, and the Prince was so much pleased with it 
that he has ordered a small replica for himself. Mr Frank Holt has 



PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 177 

also drawn a portrait of the Prince, as has also Edouard Detaille, 
the great French military painter ; but most of His Royal Highness's 
friends and relations much prefer the admirable portrait painted 
by Mr. Archibald Stuart Wortley. 

There is probably not a civilised country in the world where the 
Prince has not at any rate some friends. With France he has many 
links, dating principally from the days when so much intimacy sub- 
sisted between the French and the English Courts. With the House 
of Orleans the Prince and Princess of Wales and their children enjoy 
all the intimacy of cousinship, the more so that the Princess's 
youngest brother. Prince Waldemar, is married to a daughter of the 
Due de Chartres. 

The Prince is accustomed to utilise his travels for the purpose 
of keeping up his old friendships and of making new ones. It is 
interesting to note that he speaks fluently French, German, and 
Italian, with a little Russian. 

Of late years the Prince of Wales's brief holidays have been 
almost always spent on the Continent. His Royal Highness 
generally travels when abroad as the Earl of Chester, and sometimes 
as Baron Renfrew. At Boulogne a private saloon carriage is kept 
for the use of His Royal Highness. It was constructed by the 
South-Eastern Railway Company at a cost of about ;^7ooo, and 
•cannot be kept in proper order for less than ^^^250 a year. It 
contains two sleeping-apartments, a dining-car, and a study, and 
is painted a bright yellow, with the Prince of Wales's feathers 
introduced at intervals. 

Few people are aware what extraordinary precautions are taken 
when the Prince of Wales is travelling. The general manager of 
the railway is always apprised of the journey beforehand by His 
Royal Highness's private secretary, and a notice is sent to every 
station-master along the line. It is not usual, as in the case of the 
Queen, to send a pilot engine on ahead, but on the whole the line is 
kept clear ; and a train containing the Prince of Wales is never 
allowed to go more than fifty miles an hour. This care is taken 
just as much when the Prince is travelling in an ordinary express as 
when he has ordered a special. 

It has sometimes been asserted that members of the Royal family 



L 



1 78 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

travel free of expense. This is a mistake. Travelling is one of the 
heaviest items in the Prince of Wales's annual expenditure, the more 
so that both he and the Princess are very lavish in the matter of 
tips. 

Many stories are told in Paris of the Prince's experiences 
with persons who were quite unaware that they were addressing the 
Prince de Galles. On one occasion, when His Royal Highness 
and an equerry were going through the Louvre galleries they were 
observed by a party of Americans, one of whom remarked in a loud 
whisper to one of his friends, " I'll bet you ten naps that's the 
Prince of Wales." — " Done," cried the other. Accordingly, a iQ.yf 
moments later the American approached the Prince's equerry and 
asked him in low tone the name of his companion. " The Earl 
of Chester," was the truthful answer. " Sold," said the Yankee in 
a disappointed tone. 

It is not generally known that the Princess of Wales shares 
her husband's liking for Paris, and together they have spent some 
happy days in the gay city. The faces of the Princess and her 
daughters are naturally not so familiar in Paris as they are in London, 
and this has enabled their Royal Highnesses to take several walks 
along the Boulevards and in the main thoroughfares without being 
recognised by the crowd. On one occasion the Prince and Princess 
dined at the EJysee with President Grevy and his wife and daughter. 
There is no doubt that this dinner-party must have been in some 
ways the most remarkable ever attended by their Royal Highnesses, 
for, though they were treated with respect, none of the etiquette of 
courts was attempted. Thus, the ladies sat down in the presence 
of the Princess before dinner was announced. The Prince took 
in Madame la Presidente, while the aged President escorted the 
Princess to a seat on his right hand. 

When in Paris, the Prince of Wales, whether alone or accom- 
panied by any member of his family, always stays at the Hotel 
Bristol, a stately hostelry situated on the Place Vendome. He always 
occupies the same suite of apartments, and he is rarely seen in any of 
the public rooms of the hotel. 

It is characteristic of the Prince's discretion and good sense 
that when he is abroad he never attends, as do many of his country- 



PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 



179 




The Duke of Connaught and the Prince of Wales 
From a Photograph by F. G.O.S., published by Gregory. 

men, any race-meetings on Sundays. On one occasion, many years 
ago, when he was still quite a young man, he received a special 



L 



i8o THE PRINCE OF WALES 

invitation from Marshal MacMahon to accompany him to the 
Grand Prix. He telegraphed to the Queen for permission, but Her 
Majesty returned a reply in the negative, and the Prince resigned 
himself to disappointing the famous French soldier. 

His Royal Highness speaks French perfectly, and can make as 
good a speech in Paris as he can in London. On one occasion a 
French lady asked the Prince why he did not settle in France. 
" Vous usez vos rois trop vite dans ce pays," was the witty retort. 

Of late years the Prince has spent a certain portion of each 
winter in the South of France. He makes his headquarters at 
Cannes, the great yachting centre of the Riviera ; and those who 
picture him spending his days and nights at Monte Carlo have 
formed a very erroneous opinion of their future King's character 
and tastes. A little reflection would surely show that, apart from 
other reasons, it would be impossible for so well known a Royal 
personage to do more than stroll through the famous gambling- 
rooms ; even as it is, the Prince cannot show himself in any place 
of public entertainment without being more or less discreetly 
mobbed by the ill-bred majority of those present, and it would be 
out of the question for him to take up his stand for any time either 
at a roulette or a trente et quarante table. 

Another Continental resort which has often had the honour 
of entertaining the Prince of Wales is Homburg. When under- 
going the " cure " in the pretty German Spa, His Royal Highness sets 
an excellent example to his fellow-patients. He always stays at 
Ritter's Hotel, rises at six, and walks down to the Elizabeth Well, 
where the healing water is handed to him in a quaintly-shaped 
glass on a silver salver. After drinking two or three glasses of the 
sparkling waters, he walks off with some friend, either to the 
beautiful park or into the country beyond to the lovely fir-wood 
known as the Grosser Tannenwald. Cronberg, the Empress 
Frederick's beautiful home in the Taunus Mountains, is within a 
drive of Homburg, and when he is there the Prince often pays his 
favourite sister a visit. Having revived the glories of Homburg, 
the Prince has more recently sought rest and quiet at the smaller 
spa of Marienbad. 



I 



CHAPTER XVIII 

PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS — Continued 

One of the most absorbing interests of the Prince of Wales's life is 
undoubtedly the ancient craft of Freemasonry. And yet very few 
foreign princes are Masons ; and, though the Duke of Kent was one, 
the Prince Consort always refused to associate himself with the craft. 
Of course it must be remembered that British Freemasonry is a very 
different thing from what the term is supposed to imply on the 
Continent, where it is associated in the public mind with atheism 
and even anarchism. 

The Prince of Wales was initiated into the mysteries of Free- 
masonry in Sweden in 1868 by the late King. He was elected 
Grand Master of England in succession to the Marquis of Ripon, 
who resigned in 1875. The scene in the Albert Hall at his installa- 
tion was very striking. The platform usually occupied by the choir 
was then transformed into a da'is, on which the throne was placed, 
the space around being large enough for four or five hundred Pro- 
vincial Grand Masters, Past Grand Officers, and visitors of distinc- 
tion. The throne was the one in which George IV. was installed 
when he was Prince of Wales. It was covered with rich purple 
velvet, and the floor was laid with a magnificent Oriental carpet, a 
century old, lent for the occasion by a member of the Westminster 
and Keystone Lodge. Behind the throne the banner of Grand 
Lodge and other flags were placed ; in front a wide aisle was formed 
right across the area to the Royal entrance. This was laid with a 
rich carpet of velvet pile, woven expressly for the occasion. The 
ground was blue, enriched alternately with the arms of Grand Lodge 
and Prince of Wales's feathers. 



1 82 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

After the formalities of installation were completed, His Royal 
Highness, as Grand Master, was received with enthusiastic applause. 
When returning thanks to his brethren for the high honour they had 
that day bestowed upon him, the Prince said that it was an honour 
which several members of his family had borne, and he wished to 
follow in their steps, and, by God's grace, to fulfil the duties of his 
office as they had done. 

Although His Royal Highness has long been an active Free- 
mason, it was only a few years ago that he had at the same moment 
the disposition and the opportunity to attend the consecration of a 
Lodge in his official capacity as Grand Master of England. That 
occasion was the consecration of the Chancery Bar Lodge of Free- 
masons in Lincoln's Inn Hall. The Prince sat in the Grand Master's 
chair, wearing the full regalia of his office ; at his left sat the Earl 
of Lathom, Pro-Grand Master, and at his right, the Earl of Mount- 
Edgcumbe, Deputy Grand Master. 

Many curious incidents have occurred in connection with the 
Prince's interest in Freemasonry. At one dinner at which the King 
of Sweden was present, the list of subscriptions announced amounted 
to the enormous sum of ^ 5 1 ,000, the largest amount ever raised at 
a festival dinner in the history of the world. When the Prince of 
Wales laid the first stone of Truro Cathedral with full Masonic honours, 
the mallet used by him was the one with which Charles II. laid the 
foundation-stone of St. Paul's Cathedral. It was presented to the old 
Lodge of St. Paul by Sir Christopher Wren, who was a member. 

On two occasions His Royal Highness has presided as Grand 
Master of the English Freemasons over a magnificent assembly at 
the Royal Albert Hall. The first was in celebration of the Queen's 
Jubilee in 1887, when the tickets for admission produced ^6000, a 
sum which was divided among the three great Masonic charities. 
Very similar was the Diamond Jubilee assembly of Freemasons, at 
which eight thousand members were present. The Prince of Wales 
spoke admirably, the Duke of Connaught moving the adoption of 
the address to the Queen, while Lord Amherst aroused unbounded 
enthusiasm when he alluded to Her Majesty as " the daughter of a 
Freemason, the mother of Freemasons, and the patron and bene- 
factress of our Order." 



PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 183 

As may be imagined from the diversity of his interests, as well 
as from his position so near the throne, the Prince of Wales's 
correspondence has of late years rivalled that of the Queen, and His 
Royal Highness is always eager to acknowledge the debt he owes 
to his hard-working and clever groom-in-waiting and private 
secretary. Sir Francis Knollys, on whom falls much of the responsi- 
bility connected with the Prince's letter-bag. Sir Francis occupies 
a pretty suite of rooms in St. James's Palace, close to Marlborough 
House, and his study is in communication with the Prince's private 
apartments ; but most of his work is actually transacted at Marl- 
borough House, for every morning he makes his way across and 
attacks the vast piles of letters laid out for his inspection. 

The Prince's correspondence is then reduced by his private 
secretary to three distinct sections — the private letters, the business 
letters, and the miscellaneous letters. Among the latter are those 
written by lunatics, begging-letter writers, and so on. The private 
letters are sent up to the Prince unopened, the others are all read 
through by Sir Francis and again subdivided, the larger section to 
be replied to in a formal and official way, the others to be submitted 
to the Prince before they are dealt with. 

Some of His Royal Highness's correspondents evidently have a 
touching belief in his power of righting wrong. They implore 
him to take up their cause when they are injured, and it may be 
stated that no bona fide epistle is ever sent to Marlborough House 
addressed to the Prince of Wales without being answered, often with 
marvellous celerity, and ever with the greatest courtesy and kindness. 

As to the vast masses of begging letters, it is no secret that the 
Prince of Wales has been from the first a consistent supporter of the 
Charity Organisation Society ; and long before the excellent work 
done by that Society was as widely recognised as it is now, the 
Prince saw its infinite possibilities for good, and became a regular 
subscriber to the Mendicity Society, as it was then styled. Accord- 
ingly, His Royal Highness has rarely been imposed on even by the 
cleverest chevaliers cf Industrie. On the other hand, he is genuinely 
charitable, and on several occasions known to the writer has exerted 
himself privately to obtain pensions and grants of money for 
deserving individuals who had fallen on evil times. 



1 84 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

At Sandringham there is a post office inside the house for the 
use of the Royal Household, but at Marlborough House the huge 
letter-bags are sent over to the St. James's Street post office at 
regular intervals throughout the day. 

The Prince has long been a subscriber to the National Telephone 
Company, and he is said to spend over £1000 a year in telegrams 




Sir Francis Knollys 

From a Photograph by Russell 

alone, for the popular idea that Royalty's letters are franked, and 
that parcels sent by them are forwarded free of cost, is a delusion. 

Sir Francis Knollys's duties as secretary are not confined to what 
are generally called secretarial duties. He has to act as his Royal 
master's supplementary memory. He keeps the list of all the 
Prince's engagements, and, what is a more arduous task, arranges 
every item of the Royal journeys. Princess Charles of Denmark is 



PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 185 

said to have once observed that she felt sure that if Sir Francis were 
suddenly awakened in the middle of the night and asked what were 
the Prince of Wales's engagements eight days forward, he would 
immediately begin to recite the entire list. 

Be that as it may, the position of Sir Francis Knollys is a very 
responsible one, and even his most intimate friends marvel how he 
can get through the enormous amount of work he has to do. 
Occasionally his labours are enormously increased. At times of 
public calamity or Royal mourning, thousands and thousands of 
letters and telegrams pour into both Marlborough House and 
Sandringham, all requiring some kind of attention, and in most 
cases an immediate answer. During the Tranby Croft case well- 
intentioned folk all over the British Empire sent books and 
pamphlets pointing out the evils of gambling, and in most cases 
these were courteously and kindly acknowledged. 

Sir Francis writes every important letter with his own hand, for 
typewriters have, so far, never been used in Royal correspondence. 
He has two assistant secretaries who attend to the routine work, but 
even then many of the letters written by them are signed by him, 
and in all cases he looks them over and sees that they are as he 
would wish them to be. There is also a staff of clerks, who are 
absolutely pledged never to reveal anything they may learn about 
the private affairs of the Prince and Princess, or indeed of the Royal 
family as a whole. 

Few people realise how large a portion of their income is given 
away each year by the Prince and Princess of Wales in charity. 
During the last thirty years the aggregate amount given away by their 
Royal Highnesses represents a large fortune. Whenever one of 
those great calamities which strike the imagination of large sections 
of the British people occurs, one of the first contributions to any 
fund raised is generally sent from Marlborough House. Then, 
again, the presence of the Prince or the Princess at a philanthropic 
gathering is sure to bring in, directly or indirectly, a large sum of 
money to the undertaking. For instance, on the first occasion when 
the Prince and Princess appeared together in support of a charity — 
the British Orphan Asylum at Slough — one gentleman announced 
that he would contribute ^/^ 12,000. . 



1 86 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

The greatest care has to be taken both by the Prince and the 
Princess in selecting the tradesmen upon whom they will confer the 
undoubted advantage of their custom. Sir Dighton Probyn, the 
Comptroller of the Prince of Wales's Household, plays a very great 
part in His Royal Highness's life, for it is thanks to him that 
the Prince's London establishment is so admirably organised and 
managed. It is his duty to see that the Prince's Warrants are only 
given to those who are worthy of them. A Royal Warrant is 
naturally considered a great honour by the recipient, and any firm 
aspiring to be a Warrant-Holder must supply the Prince of W^ales's 
Household for one year in a satisfactory manner before becoming 
eligible ; and should the firm become bankrupt, or even change its 
name, the Warrant must be returned to the Comptroller of the 
Household. 

On the Prince's birthday the Warrant-Holders are wont to dine 
together, and on the menu always figures some venison contributed 
both by the Queen and by the Prince of Wales, who each send a 
fine buck. On all Royal occasions of rejoicing the Warrant- 
Holders are considered to have a special right to present a gift 
accompanied by their congratulations. 

Every monetary transaction is not only recorded, but indexed at 
Marlborough House ; and it is a significant fact that any tradesman 
who sends in an account twice over is never again patronised by 
their Royal Highnesses. 

His Royal Highness does not confine his custom to any one 
London tailor ; on the contrary, he is careful to distribute his 
patronage, and it is a mistake to fancy that His Royal Highness 
pays very much more for his clothes than do other people. His 
wardrobe is necessarily larger and more varied than that of a private 
individual. It need hardly be said that he dresses in perfect taste, 
and it is well known that he has no sympathy with the revolutionists 
who would abolish the frock-coat. His Royal Highness is, 
however, also understood to have a special fondness for the old- 
fashioned " bowler " hat. It would be difficult to over-estimate the 
Prince's influence as an arbiter of fashion, especially in America, where 
every trifling change in his costume is faithfully reported and imitated, 
and also on the Continent. On the whole, his influence in matters of 




The Prince as Admiral 

From a Photograph by Russell 



1 88 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

dress is strongly conservative. He has none of the Continental love 
of displaying uniforms, and his dress is always the acme of good taste, 
because it is always absolutely suitable to the occasion on which it 
is worn. 

The Prince has an ever-increasing number of uniforms, military 
and other. Every one of his honorary army titles requires four 
complete uniforms, — full dress, undress, mess dress, and overcoat. 
His uniforms and robes are worth quite _^ 15,000, and are, of 
course, fully insured. 

It need hardly be said that the Prince has almost every Order in 
existence. The mere enumeration of them fills up a large space in 
Debrett. Some of them are extremely valuable. The principal 
Order possessed by His Royal Highness is, of course, the Garter, 
which is only worn by him on great occasions. The badge consists 
of a dark blue velvet garter edged with gold, with gold buckle and 
pendant, and bearing the motto, Honi soil qui mal y pense. His 
Royal Highness is very fond of wearing the Collar of the Bath, of 
which he is now Great Master. The actual Order itself consists of 
a Maltese cross, a collar of gold, a star, a habit, and a crimson 
riband. 

The Prince's own favourite among his Orders is that of Malta, 
the Sovereign Order of St. John of Jerusalem, of which the badge 
is the well-known Maltese cross suspended from a black ribbon. 
When in Scotland, His Royal Highness wears on State occasions the 
Order of the Thistle, of which the badge is a figure of St. Andrew 
in enamelled gold, bearing a St. Andrew's cross, surrounded by 
golden rays terminating in eight principal points in the form of 
a glory. 

When the Prince of Wales is in Paris he generally wears the 
rosette of an officer of the Legion of Honour. This enables him, 
when walking about the town incognito^ to pass unchallenged 
anywhere and everywhere. 




Mr. John Porter and Mr. Richard Marsh, the Prince's Past and Present 
Trainers, and John Watts, his Jockey 

From Photcgraphs by Elliott & Fry, and Clarence Hailey 



CHAPTER XIX 



THE PRINCE AS A SPORTSMAN THE TURF PERSIMMON S DERBY 

THE DERBY-DAY DINNER HUNTING SHOOTING DEER- 
STALKING YACHTING. 

The Prince of Wales has always taken a very keen interest in those 
sports and pastimes which are peculiarly British, and perhaps it is 
to this that he owes his remarkable bodily vigour and healthy 
appearance, for he is never so content as when enjoying a long day's 
tramp over the stubble at Sandringham, or when deer-stalking in a 
soft Highland mist. 

His Royal Highness's life as a sportsman began early. When 
he was quite a child he used to accompany Prince Albert on deer- 
stalking expeditions round Balmoral ; somewhat later he hunted 
with the harriers ; and when he was fifteen he could claim to be the 
best shot in his family. But of late years the Prince of Wales has 
been rather associated in the public mind with the sport of kings, 
and the Royal colours — purple, gold band, scarlet sleeves, and black 
velvet cap with gold fringe — are a familiar sight on most British 
race-courses. Although the Prince has been a member of the 



I90 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

Jockey Club for thirty years, his keen personal interest in racing is 
a matter of later growth, for it was not till July 1877 that the 
Princess of Wales honoured Newmarket with her presence to see 
her husband's colours carried for the first time. On that occasion 
the Prince had no luck, although Alep, a pure-bred Arab, started 
favourite, being, however, beaten by Lord Strathnairn's Arab 
Avowal by twenty or thirty lengths. Five years later the 
Prince won the Household Brigade Cup at Sandown with 
Fairplay. 

In 1890 His Royal Highness put his racers under John Porter, 
but his total winnings were only £62^. The next year the Prince 
won ^4148; in 1892, ^^190; in 1893, £3^2; in 1894, £3^-99 'y 
and in 1895, ^^8281; and in the last-named year His Royal 
Highness's name stood tenth in the list of winning owners. This 
satisfactory result was undoubtedly greatly owing to Lord Marcus 
Beresford, who was entrusted with the management of the Prince's 
racing stable in 1890. 

The Prince of Wales is generally agreed to be a very good 
judge of a horse. When at Newmarket he makes it a point to 
watch the early morning gallops, and at one time he was very fond 
of attending sales. The Prince has also given a great impetus to 
horse-breeding in the United Kingdom. Many years ago he started 
a thorough-bred stud, a half-bred stud, and a shire-horse stud — 
works of real public utility, which can only be undertaken, be it 
remembered, by those who have wealth and leisure, combined with 
intelligence and a real desire to forward the interests of the British 
farmer. 

Of late the Prince has had the satisfaction of seeing his colours 
often pass the winning-post, but it need hardly be said that his 
greatest triumph was the victory of Persimmon in the Derby of 
1896. This fine horse — a bay by St. Simon, and own brother to 
Florizel 11. , who was, by the way, the first really good horse that 
ever carried the Royal colours — is a magnificent specimen of the 
thorough-bred. Persimmon has never been beaten by any horse 
except his own half-brother, St. Frusquin. He was bred by the 
Prince of Wales and trained by Marsh at Newmarket. He made his 
first appearance in the Coventry Stakes at Ascot as a two-year-old, 



PERSIMMON 



191 



and, starting favourite, won the race. On the occasion of his next 
appearance, in the Richmond Stakes at Goodwood, he was again 
favourite, and again won by a length. In the Middle Park Plate, 
though favourite, he was beaten by St. Frusquin, but in the Derby 
of 1896 he beat his half-brother by a neck. At the Newmarket 
First July Meeting he gave 3 lb. to St. Frusquin, and was beaten in 




The Egerton House Training Stables, Newmarket 

From a Photograph by Clarence Hailey 



the Princess of Wales's Stakes. He won the St. Leger by a length 
and a half ; and in the Jockey Club Stakes at Newmarket on the i st 
October he won by two lengths from Sir Visto, the Derby winner 
of 1897. 

Persimmon was ridden to victory in the Derby of 1896 by John 
Watts. The race was witnessed by an extraordinarily large 
concourse of all classes, including a considerable number of dis- 
tinguished foreigners. Never was there a more popular victory. 



DERBY-DAY DINNER 193 

and the enthusiasm all over the country was as great as at Epsom. 
It was the fourth time in the history of the Turf that the great race 
had been won by a Royal owner. In 1788, eight years after its 
foundation, the Prince Regent won with Sir Thomas ; and the 
Duke of York won with Prince Leopold in 18 16, and with 
Moses in 1822. 

The Derby-Day dinner is certainly one of the most important 
functions held at Marlborough House during the year, and it is 
now difficult to believe that it was only inaugurated just ten years 
ago. Something like fifty invitations are sent out, and the guests, 
who are, it need hardly be said, all men, assemble in the great 
drawing-room, where they are joined by their Royal host just 
before dinner, which is announced at half-past eight. The company 
are expected to wear evening dress — not uniform — and the Royal 
guests, of whom there are as a rule from eight to ten, have each an 
attendant told off to wait on him, while each couple of the others 
present share an attendant. 

On Derby Day the great silver dinner-service ordered by the 
Prince on his marriage, which cost some ^20,000, is always used. 
The table is laid quite plainly, flowers being conspicuous by their 
absence ; but on the side buffet, which exactly faces the spot 
where the Prince sits, are to be seen the racing-cups, the hunting- 
trophies, and the gold and silver salvers, for everything in the 
strong-room which is associated with sport is brought out for that 
one day. 

One typical Derby dinner menu was as follows :^ 

POTAGES. 

Tortue Claire. 
Turtle Punch. Bisque d'^crevisses. 

POISSONS. 

Madeira, 1820. Petites Truites au bleu, sauce Genoise. 

Steinberg Cabinet, 1857. Filets de Soles a la Norvegienne. 

Entries. 
Cotelettes de Cailles a la Clamart. 
Chauds Froids de Volailles a la Renaissance. 
O 



194 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

Relev^s. 

Moet et Chandon. Hanches de Venaison, sauce aigre douce. 

Mouton poele au Champagne. 
Still Sillery, 184.6. Sorbets a I'ltalienne. 

Rots. 

Chambertin, 1875. Poussins rotis sur canapes. 

Salade de Romaine a la Fran^aise. 

Entremets. 

Asperges en branches, sauce Mousseline. 

Croutes aux Praises a la Princesse. 

Chartreuse de Peches a la Montreueil. 

Gradins de Patisseries Assorties. 

Releves. 
Casolettes de Fromage a la Russe. 

Glace. 
Buissons de Glaces a la Napolitaine. 



Royal tawny port, 50 years old. 

Royal white port. 

Sherry, George IV. 

Magnums, Chateau Lafite, 1864. 

Brandy, 1848. 

When dinner is over, His Royal Highness gives a signal for 
smoking to begin, then an adjournment is made to the large 
drawing-room, where tables are found set out for cards. 

Although the Prince of Wales has been a plucky and fearless 
rider from early childhood, he has never been specially identified 
with the hunting-field, and during the last few years he has seldom 
been seen following the hounds. When an undergraduate at Christ 
Church, he constantly hunted with Lord Macclesfield's pack, and 
was then considered a very hard rider ; and it need hardly be said 
that the meets which take place at Sandringham are the most 
popular in Norfolk, and give both the Prince and Princess of Wales 
many opportunities of showing gracious and kindly hospitality, both 
to their wealthy and their humble neighbours. 

Before the Prince had been at Sandringham six months he made 



SiPORT AT SANDRINGHAM 195 

it quite clear that his country home should be in every sense a good 
sporting estate, and it has been one of His Royal Highness's chief 
pleasures to entertain parties of keen sportsmen each autumn in 
Norfolk. It is on record that the best shooting season Sandringham 
has ever seen was that of 1885-86. The total bag was 16,131 
head, including 7252 pheasants. The best day of that season was 
the last day of the year 1885, when ten guns killed 2835 head, 
including 1275 pheasants. The rabbit-shooting at Sandringham is 
also first-rate, and it need hardly be said that the foxes are watched 
over with the most tender anxiety, the covers being said to be among 
the best in the country. 

Over ten thousand pheasants are annually reared at Sandringham, 
partly by incubators and partly by the assistance of a thousand 
ordinary hens. The lake near Sandringham affords wild duck, teal, 
and widgeon shooting. The Prince has the largest game-room in 
the United Kingdom. It holds between six and seven thousand 
head, and was built not very long after the Prince bought the estate. 
After each day's sport the game is spread for inspection, and a 
careful record is made of the numbers that have fallen to each gun. 
It is in the game-room that the game is packed after a big battue to 
be sent off in hampers to hospitals and to friends. It need hardly be 
said that none of the Prince's game is ever sold. A good deal is 
kept for the use of the house, and a share is also given to the 
tenants, to the employes on the estate, and to London tradesmen 
connected with the Prince's Household. 

The Prince's shooting-parties rarely number more than ten guns, 
each of whom is assigned his place in the shoot by his Royal host 
himself. All the beaters at Sandringham wear a very becoming 
uniform composed of a Royal blue blouse, low crowned hat, and 
long brown gaiters. Each bears on his left arm a number by 
which he may readily be identified, and after each day's shooting 
every one of the beaters is allowed to take home a hare and a 
pheasant. 

The Prince of Wales is not often seen going north for the open- 
ing weeks of the grouse-shooting season. Still, in the early years of 
his married life, he and the Princess often entertained shooting-parties 
at Birkhall, The Prince generally puts in a certain number of days 



196 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

pheasant-shooting in Windsor Great Park. The preserves swarm 
with ground game. The Prince is entitled to take what game he 
requires, and all the members of the Royal family have a certain 




The Prince as a Sportsman in 1876 

From an Engrawng published by Henry Gra'ves and Co. 



quantity despatched to them, the remainder being distributed. The 
Prince is also fond of shooting at Wynyard, Lord Londonderry's seat 
in Durham. The Prince of Wales has, however, shot more or less 
all over England. He was frequently the guest of Lord James of 
Hereford when the latter had Shoreham Place, where one valley on 



DEER-STALKING— YACHTING 197 

the farther side of the park is locally known as " The Valley of the 
Shadow of Death," from the tremendous slaughter of game that 
annually takes place there. 

Like his father, the late Prince Consort, the Prince of Wales has 
always been a keen deer-stalker, and when he is staying at Balmoral 
most of his time is entirely devoted to this sport — in fact, deer- 
stalking is what first brought him into close connection with his 
present son-in-law, then the Earl of Fife, who possesses Mar, one of 
the two largest forests in Great Britain, extending as it does to over 
80,000 acres of cleared ground. 

Balmoral, which, it is said, will ultimately become the property 
in turn of every reigning sovereign, is situated in the heart of the 
deer country, being within reach of a good number of forests 
adjoining each other, and extending without a break into five 
counties. 

His Royal Highness is well known to prefer " stalking " to 
driving, but of late years he has taken an active part in the drives 
organised at Mar. The Prince's marksmanship is universally agreed 
to be excellent. His Royal Highness does not either own or rent a 
single acre of land in Scotland. At one time he was owner of 
Birkhall, in Glenmuick, but it was purchased for him by Prince 
Albert, and he had no voice in its selection. Still the Prince kept it 
till 1885, when he sold the property, which was very extensive, to 
the Queen. 

The Prince of Wales has been extremely fortunate as a yachts- 
man, and probably one of the annual events to which he most looks 
forward each year is the Regatta at Cowes. The Prince first won 
the Oueen's Cup, annually presented to the Royal Yacht Squadron 
at Cowes, in 1877, with his schooner Hildegarde of 198 tons. He 
won the Cup again in 1880 with the Formosa, cutter, of 103 tons, 
and again in 1895 ^^"^"^ ^^97 with the famous cutter Britannia of 
151 tons. 

The Royal Yacht Squadron, as is well known, was founded as 
"The Yacht Club" so far back as 18 15. It early enjoyed the 
patronage of Royalty, among the past and present members being 
numbered the Prince Regent (afterwards George IV.), the Duke of 
Clarence (afterwards William IV.), the Queen, the Prince Consort, 



198 THE PRINCE OF WALES 

the Tsar Nicholas I., Napoleon III., the German Emperor, and 
Prince Henry of Prussia. The Prince of Wales became Commodore 
in 1882 on the death of Lord Wilton. 

The Prince generally takes the chair at the annual dinner of the 
Squadron held at the old castle at West Cowes, built as a fort by 
Henry VIII. , which became the headquarters of the club in 1858. 
This festivity is the great event of the year for all well-known 




The "Britannia" 

From a Photograph by Adamson, Rothesay 

yachtsmen. There is a great display of plate, including the Queen's 
Cup, the Nelson Vase, and the beautiful model of the Speranza, 
which once belonged to Lord Conyngham. His Royal Highness 
presented a few years ago twenty-one cannon to the club-house at 
Cowes. They were taken by him from the Royal Adelaide, the toy 
warship placed by William IV, to guard the artificial ocean of 
Virginia Water. Now they are used for firing salutes. 

It need hardly be said that the Prince is the owner of many 
splendid prizes won at Cowes and elsewhere. Both he and the 



YACHTING 199 

Princess are extremely fond of the sea, and he early made himself 
acquainted with the less technical side of navigation. The Prince of 
Wales is very fond of spending a certain number of days each year 
at Cannes, and when he is there in April he generally takes an active 
part in the Battle of Flowers ; and he entertains large parties of his 
English and foreign friends on board the Britannia. 




The Prince in Yachting Costume 

Photograph by Debenham, Coives 




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